Born, Not Made
by laramielionheart
Summary: For a price, Hufflepuff Avery Stone uses her ability to change her appearance at will to assume her classmate's identities and endure the unpleasant in their place. But, when the Weasley twins learn about her business venture, they plan to use her to further the success of their own entrepreneurship and complications with Avery's friends and Cedric Diggory ensue.
1. It Started With a Storm

It was a bright, sunny sky reflected on the ceiling of the great hall that morning. A cursory glance upward and one might assume they were in for a pleasant day. However, with further inspection, one might've noticed the storm clouds brewing off to the west end of the head table, indicating a bit of trouble weather-wise and otherwise, as it would turn out, for Avery Stone, who was so engrossed in conversation, she had hardly bothered to look up and see the storm heading right for her.

Sitting at the Hufflepuff table at the far right of the Great Hall was an assortment of students, including Miss Stone, who was sporting a long, wavy, straw colored length of hair today, when only just yesterday it had been nary an inch past her earlobes and bright blue. She was currently leaning across the table, talking animatedly with a visiting, rather distressed looking Ravenclaw.

"Detention? With Snape? Hm, best I could do would be five galleons, I'm afraid," she said with a shrug and a smile. She normally tried to keep her prices below a galleon or two, but scrubbing the cauldrons in Snape's classroom would be absolutely dreadful, and she was hoping to buy a new broom before quidditch tryouts, so it was a price to help kill two birds with one stone.

"Five galleons! You cleaned Seamus' trophies for two!" exclaimed the Ravenclaw, his cloak sliding down his shoulders, running his hand through his already messy mop of hair.

"Yeah, but that was working with Filch, an absolute joy compared to Snape. Last time I covered a detention with him, I ended up there all night cataloging potion ingredients. No. It'll be five galleons or your hide, mate. Sorry. It's the best I can do."

The Ravenclaw, a boy by the name of Dennis Aldermaston, gave Avery an exasperated look, too which she replied with a shrug, turning her attention to her toast and marmalade, assuming her price was too high and he wasn't going to agree. She felt it was a relatively fair price, and with a broomstick on the line, she wasn't willing to budge, especially since she had heard a few others were given the same detention for the incident on the train and if Dennis didn't take the deal, one of them might.

"Okay. Five galleons," he sighed, thrusting his hands deep in the pockets of his cloak and collecting the change, which he handed to Avery, who then tucked it into hers.

"Thanks very much. Now, when and where exactly?"

"Tonight in the dungeons. He said to arrive at 7," Dennis replied.

"Alright, let me just take note of your features, then," Avery replied, digging a quill out of her bag. Staring intently at Dennis, she made note of the way his nostrils flared a bit too much and the prominent line of freckles along his jaw, which she rather liked. She continued to stare at them, each one smaller than the last, trailing from the edge of his jaw down to his chin.

"Starting a bit early, aren't you?" he said after a few minutes.

"What's that?" Avery asked quizzically, losing her focus.

"You've got my freckles," he said, gesturing to the right side of her jaw, where a line of freckles identical to his had appeared.

"Oh, sorry," she chuckled. She began to concentrate hard until her skin returned to its normal ivory color. After his freckles had vanished from her face, she continued to stare, long and critically at him and his somewhat awkward, lanky, 5th year frame, wanting to make sure her replication would be one Snape and the other students serving detention wouldn't question. The longer she looked, the more imperfections she noticed, like a plethora of untrimmed nose hair and the way his left eye was just a touch lazy and drooped to the right, and finally, she decided she had had enough.

"Alright then, shouldn't be a problem. I'll owl you an update, and your clothes, of course. Otherwise, enjoy your free night tonight, and stay out of sight," she said, placing her quill and parchment back into her bag.

"Thanks, Avery. I appreciate it," Dennis said, standing and handing her some of his Ravenclaw Robes, and moving back to the Ravenclaw table with a wave. She shoved his robes into his bag, glancing about to see if anyone had noticed the exchange, and luckily the few students that were around her seemed to be all to engaged in breakfast and catching up with classmates to notice her and her dealings.

"All that cunning and not being sorted into Slytherin. I'll never understand it," her friend Marilyn scoffed beside her as she spooned herself porridge and skimmed _The Prophet_.

"Perhaps I wasn't quite this cunning three years ago. Perhaps I should be resorted. I've always said that eleven seems way too early to be sorted; you've hardly become yourself by that time. It'd be much more accurate if we were sorted at fifteen or sixteen," Avery mused, turning back to her toast.

"Perhaps we should be resorted every year," Marilyn added, although she didn't really seem to be paying much attention to the conversation. Marilyn had dark brown hair and eyes to match with rather pale skin and a dusting of freckles across her cheeks. They had been friends since they first began at Hogwarts, and this was usually how things went between them; Avery doing something questionable and Marilyn commenting on her loosely moraled behaviour but not stopping it for the most part.

"Maybe. Might liven things up a bit," Avery agreed, finishing her toast and dusting the crumbs from her hand, reaching for her bag just as Marilyn reached for her own.

"We've had bloody You-Know-Who here two out of the two years we've been at Hogwarts and you think things need livening up?" Marilyn scoffed again, and Avery smiled, but chose not to reply, as they started off for Divination, their first class of their third year together. In class, Trelawney, a rather unusual professor, predicted that Avery should "beware red haired men." However, Avery laughed it off, just like she laughed off her reading of Harry Potter's tea leaves, which she insisted looked just like a grim. Little did she knew just how accurate her prediction had been or how those storm clouds were slowly making their way just over her head.

That night at six forty-five, Avery made her way down the stairs of the entrance hall and towards the dungeons where the night's detention would be held, although, anyone who saw her on her path would not have recognized her. Dressed in the robes Dennis had lent her that morning and donning his short sandy hair, flared nostrils and freckled jaw, Avery was about to enter and complete Dennis' detention in his place. And as long as she didn't have to talk too much, no one would be the wiser.

Very few people knew that Avery would often assume the identity of other students in order to help them evade the unpleasant; she had often covered detentions, preformed awkward break-ups, or feigned interest at parties they didn't want to go to but didn't want to be caught missing. And it was one of the few well kept secrets of Hogwarts because if she was ever caught the students who used her would no longer be able to take advantage of her services. And Avery didn't mind, either, since they were willing to pay.

So it was into Snape's class she stepped, letting her cloak slide off her shoulders slightly in the way Dennis did, her hair ruffled like his had been that morning. In the class already waiting was her fellow Hufflepuff Jeffery Talbot, looking rather pale and jittery. She took a seat at the table adjacent to him, leaning forward onto the table. It had been a long first day, and she wasn't much looking forward to detention, despite the large sum of money it was for.

"Alright there, Dennis?" Jeffery asked, looking not very alright himself. Avery nodded instead of voicing a reply; the less she talked, the better. While she could easily make herself look like anyone she wanted, her voice was a different story.

Avery knew Snape made Jeffery incredibly anxious; Jeffery hated losing house points. It made him feel like he was letting everyone down and caused him a great deal of guilt and it occurred to Avery he must have been dreading this night even more than she was. She wished briefly that Jeffery had asked her to take his place; she would have done it for free knowing how anxious it made him. But, it was too late now and there was no sense in worrying about it.

Just then, the door to Snape's office opened and he stalked inside, scanning the room like a vulture, just waiting to pick them apart. Jeffery visibly swallowed.

"And where are the Weasley twins?" Snape wondered aloud, tutting their tardiness. "I suppose it'll have to be ten points from Gryffindor."

Like clockwork, Fred and George ambled into the room just as the last word left Snape's mouth, making to take seats at the table behind Avery. They made no comment on their lateness or the points they had lost, but then again losing points because of Snape was nothing new to them. They frequently lost points for their house and no one seemed to care all that much; the Twins, though incorrigibly mischievous were ridiculously charming and therefore popular. Or so Avery had observed from afar and heard from her fellow students who knew them; she had never actually met them herself, being two years younger than they and in a different house.

"That won't be necessary," Snape began, "your punishment will begin immediately," waving his had impatiently as the twins had begun to pull chairs out. They stopped as Avery and Jeffery stood from their own seats.

"You'll be scrubbing these cauldrons clean. No magic whatsoever," he said, gesturing to a pile of sickly looking cauldrons, beside which was a bin containing several scrubbing sponges and bottles of Mrs. Skower's All-purpose Magical Mess Remover. Groaning, the three fifth years and the one fifth year impersonator grabbed a cauldron each and set to work while Snape sat a few feet away from them at his desk, seeming to be going over lesson plans and occasionally glaring in their direction when the twins began talking too loudly.

"So he tracked me down in the bloody bathroom and was whispering Quidditch strategy to me through the door. Honestly, it's only the first day and Wood is already acting like a madman," Fred was telling Jeffery in a whisper, who chuckled politely but was too afraid of Snape's frequent glances to comment.

"Think if we nicked a calming draught from the hospital wing we could slip it in his pumpkin juice each morning? I'd like to just enjoy quidditch this year without Wood hounding me in between classes," George asked his twin.

"Excellent idea, George," Fred replied, grinning broadly. Avery couldn't help but watch them as they joked back and forth to one another quietly. Not only did they seem clever and interesting, but they were both well built and handsome with strong jaws and deep, hazel eyes. She very much liked their eyes in particular, staring at George's in a way she hoped wasn't too noticeable while he scrubbed the cauldron he held between his knees.

"What about you, Dennis? Davies troubling you with chaser strategy just yet, or is our captain the only one going bonkers already?" George asked, locking eyes with Avery as he scrubbed the outer edges of his pewter cauldron. Avery shrugged and grunted non-commitally in response.

"Well how'd it go with that girl on the train yesterday? You know, before we set off the dungbomb and consequently landed us all in detention-"

"Sorry about that, by the way, didn't mean to get either of you caught in the crosshairs," Fred added.

Avery stared down at her cauldron, a slight panic seizing her. Dennis hadn't mentioned a girl, so she wasn't sure how to respond.

"Urm, I'd rather not talk about it," said said honestly, in a deep voice. She truly didn't want to talk about it, just not for the reason they assumed.

"That bad, eh?"

"Don't worry about it, mate, there are plenty of fish in the sea," George chuckled.

The twins continued trying to make conversation with Avery, but as she gave shorter and shorter responses each time, the twins seemed to have thought better of being friendly and began to talk amongst themselves instead. She made a mental note to tell Dennis about the interaction in case anyone were to probe him about it later.

About halfway through detention, Avery noticed that Fred was oggling her, but not in a good way. His brow was furrowed at her curiously but she couldn't very well ask him what he was on about without risking exposing herself, so she avoided eye contact as much as possible the rest of the evening, until Snape allowed them to leave, each rubbing their elbows and smelling strongly of cleaner.

Jeffery and Avery were the first to leave the room, walking up the long and narrow passage together, some of Jeffery's color returning. Looking over her shoulder, Avery could see the twins huddled together, whispering conspiratorially. She assumed they were planning to sneak off to do whatever it is that the Weasley twins do, meanwhile she couldn't wait to fall into her bed. She would write Dennis a report in the morning, making sure to note who was at detention, what they did, and any other details she felt he may need to know in case anyone brought up the detention to him later.

"Headed back to the Ravenclaw tower, eh Dennis?" Fred asked, sidling up to her left side as she and Jeffery were heading out of the dungeons towards the entrance hall. She grunted in response.

"We'll walk with you part of the way; that way if Filch sees us he won't assume we're out for our own amusement and threaten to hang us by our ankles again," George came from her right side.

"Right," Avery replied, in her best impression of Dennis' baritone. She would have given anything to just sneak off, change back to herself, and get back to the Hufflepuff dormitories, but instead she would have to hike most of the way to the Ravenclaw common room until she could ditch the twins; otherwise, they might suspect something was amiss.

It wasn't until after they had bid Jeffery goodbye and the twins dragged her into an abandoned classroom on the second floor that she realized they had already suspected something was amiss.

"Hey, what'dyou think you're doing!?" she exclaimed, trying to maintain her best Dennis and failing in the shock of the twins manhandling her.

George had shut the door behind them and Fred was staring at her with his arms crossed over his broad chest.

"Something's off about you, mate, and it makes me a bit uncomfortable," he said, eying her suspiciously.

"Dunno what you're on about," Avery said, her impression of Dennis improving as she straightened her robes.

"Answer one simple question, and you can go. How's that?" George asked, standing next to his twin and mimicking his stance. Avery chose not to reply, but stared at them impatiently.

"What color are your eyes?" they asked in unison.

"Blue," Avery grunted. She had not only known Dennis for three years, but had also studied him intently this morning, and although she couldn't understand why they would ask such a question, she didn't care to ask since she knew her answer was one hundred percent correct.

"Now, I'm off to bed," she said, starting to push past them, but they each put a hand on one side of her chest and pushed her backwards. It was clear they weren't about to let her go anywhere.

"That's what I thought too. I was sure they were at the beginning of detention, but then I noticed they weren't anymore," Fred said, staring at her, his brow furrowed again. Horrified, Avery began to understand why Fred had been oggling her. She had a bad habit of assuming traits she liked of the people she was with. With Marilyn, she often assumed freckles across her cheeks. If she spent too long near Cedric Diggory, she often found herself wearing his smile. Before Fred had been oggling her, she had been oggling him and his twin and must have accidentally assumed their hazel eyes. She began to mentally run through a list of excuses as to why her eyes were no longer blue, but there weren't any. Gaping like a fish, Avery stared back at them.

"The truth would be the best option, mate. Who or what are you?" George said, throwing his shoulders back in what she assumed was an attempt to look menacing. Although they were a well built pair, she could hardly feel threatened by the ever-fun Weasley twins, who she had only ever seen laughing and smiling. But, in any case, she decided he was right; the truth was the best option. There was no lie they would believe (that she could think of on the spot, anyway,) and Fred and George being the mischievous pair that they were would no doubt understand her business venture and keep it a secret. So, without so much as a word, she began to focus on her normal features and gender, and morphed back into herself; a 5'6" female with a curvy build, heart shaped face, brown eyes, a slight gap in her teeth, and the same long blonde hair from that morning.

"My name is Avery Stone, I'm in Hufflepuff. Metamorphmagus," she said, in response to their open-mouthed stare. She was holding Dennis' pants up as she stood, his clothes very baggy on her frame.

"Bloody hell. That's neat trick," Fred chuckled. "But what are you doing pretending to be Dennis during detention?"

"He paid me to. I do it pretty regularly. Not just for Dennis, but a few students. If they need something done but they themselves can't do it they'll pay me to pretend to be them. But it's very hush hush. I can't have the teachers finding out about it so can we just pretend this never happened?" Avery forced a smile. She didn't like pleading, but she didn't want to be found out. The twins didn't respond, but look at each other and nodded as if agreeing on something they had wordlessly communicated in that way that only twins can.

"We'll be happy to keep your secret," Fred started, looking back to Avery.

"In exchange for your services, of course," George continued.

"Um, don't you think there are already enough people who look like you? I mean, you already have a person that can pretend to be you at any given time. Why would you need me?" Avery said, giving them an incredulous look. She didn't want to help them, especially if it had to be for free.

"For what we're planning, it'd actually be very useful to have a third. Now, off to bed with you. We'll meet you with the details in the morning," Fred said with a wink. And with that, the twins left Avery alone in the classroom, holding her pants round her waist, and wondering just how long this storm was going to last.


	2. Weasley's Wizarding' What?

"Weasley's wizarding _what_?"

Yet again Avery was sitting at the Hufflepuff table with her friend Marilyn, fellow housemates sparsely seated to her left and right, leaning across the table to talk animatedly with members of another house. It was the morning after the detention in the dungeon, and, as promised, the Weasley twins had come to her with details of what it would take to keep them quiet.

"Wheezes," chorused the twins, those hazel eyes of theirs alight with pride. They were planning to start their own business and insisted that Avery help them, but in what way they had yet to explain.

"It'll be a joke shop, like Zonkos, only better. We have a lot of ideas, it's just getting the materials that's causing the problem. You know, potion ingredients, things of that nature," George explained quietly.

"Well how am I to help with that?" Avery asked, puzzled. She didn't exactly have a supply closet of potion ingredients or whatever else they would be needing to prototype and manufacture wizarding wheezes.

"Well, with your ability to disguise yourself so easily, you could nick what we need. And since you're relatively unknown, no one would suspect you," Fred explained. Avery felt taken aback for a moment. She wanted to argue that she was very well known among her classmates, but she knew it would be a weak argument indeed. She had a handful of people she was close with, but other than that, she flew dangerously far under the radar. Perhaps it was because her ever-changing appearance, but people never seemed to remember her from one day to the next. She had assumed before she began at Hogwarts her condition would make her a novelty, metamorphmagi being extremely rare, and although at first people seemed impressed by her ability, the interest wore away fairly quickly in her first year, and she had remained relatively unnoticed since.

"Yeah, only one problem; I have an aversion to theft," she retorted, "you know us Hufflepuffs, all about being just and what have you."

"Ah. And would you call it 'just' to deliberately mislead dozens by disguising yourself as other people?" Fred asked, cocking an eyebrow. George smirked next to him.

"There's nothing wrong with what I do," Avery said, although she wasn't quite convinced with her own argument.

"Then why worry who finds out about your little business venture if you're not doing anything wrong?" Fred asked as though he were genuinely curious, brow furrowed, tilting his head mockingly to the side.

"Look, you can help us nick what we need, or you can give us a percentage of what you make from each of your own customers so we can buy materials fair and honest-"

"Tha-That's not fair!" Avery stammered, her face growing hot. She had been working hard to make money for a broomstick. If she had to give Fred and George part of her earnings she would have to start charging even more, otherwise she wouldn't be able to afford a broom until the following year. Marilyn snorted next to her, trying to disguise it as a cough, while she pretended to read _The Prophet._

"Look, we know how hard it is to operate your own business, and we'd hate to ruin it for you. Honestly, we would, but when it comes down to it, you have to do what you have to do," George shrugged, trying to look sympathetic.

"Do you _really_ have to, though? You've never had trouble nicking things before. Why do you need help now?" Avery whined. She was getting frustrated as it was looking more and more like she had no other choice.

"If things go missing we're the first pair people point the finger at-"

"Can't understand it, really, we're practically saints-"

"So we need someone who can snatch what we need and store it, while there are plenty of witnesses that can attest we were elsewhere when the stealing took place."

Avery put her head in her hands. The conversation was exhausting her.

"How long will I have to help you? How much will I have to take?" She looked up just in time to see the twins look at one another and seem to silently agree on something.

"If you can get us what we need from Snape's private stores, that's all we'll ask. We can use that to make prototypes and experiment until we can afford to buy the materials ourselves. You should be able to do it in one go," Fred said locking eyes with Avery, who took a deep breath, letting it out through pursed lips.

"Alright. You have a deal. I'll get what you need from his stockroom and then you must never breathe a word about what I do to anyone ever again," Avery replied quickly.

"Excellent," the twins said in unison, pushing themselves out of their seats and onto their feet.

"We'll need to meet you after classes today to discuss the plan; the statue of the one eyed witch. We'll see you then." and with that, they wandered off, bits of toast in their hands, smiling jovially.

"Great, just _great,_ " Avery moaned, buttering her toast a little more aggressively than she had originally intended and tearing a hole right through the middle of it.

"Isn't it, though?" Marilyn asked cheerily, grinning broadly. Avery turned to glare at her.

"So much for that famous Hufflepuff loyalty trait, huh?"

"I'm still on your side. I just find it funny. I've been warning you about impersonating people for quite a while now. I figured eventually you would get caught by a teacher and be told never to do it again. But honestly I like this better," Marilyn said, pouring herself another half glass of pumpkin juice.

"Why? Cause it's worse?" Avery muttered into her toast.

"Not necessarily; just cause I think you might learn better this way and it might keep you from doing it again. I mean, honestly, how good is their word? They could still tell anyone any minute about what you're doing."

"They promised they wouldn't," Avery replied, furrowing her brow at her friend.

"They? The pair of wicked twins who seconds ago told you they would do what they had to do to get their business off the ground? Really Avery, do them their favor and call it quits after that. As long as you don't keep doing people these favors the twins may tattle on you, but they won't be able to prove anything," Marilyn replied with a knowing look. But Avery chose not to respond and focus on her report to Dennis. Sure, the twins were a pair of troublemakers, but she had no reason to doubt their word. At least not yet.

After classes that day, Avery waited for the twins next to the statue of the one-eyed witch as they had told her. It was a hideous looking thing; leaning forward, one claw-like hand wrapped around wrapped around a staff, the other extended before her, a large hump on her back. Avery had never really paused to look it before. It wasn't exactly pleasing to the eye. It seemed a strange meeting place, but she didn't care much; she just wanted to meet the twins, steal whatever they needed, and focus on making more broomstick money. Perhaps if the meeting went quickly she could even drum up some work for the night.

"Alright there, Avery?" Fred called as he and his twin strode towards her, rolling up their sleeves and loosening their ties.

"Could be worse. In fact I have a feeling it's about to get worse very quickly," she nodded to the old bit of parchment in George's hand, assuming it was a list of potion ingredients they needed.

"You have no idea," the twins chirped. George began to stare intently at the parchment in his hand and then motioned to Fred, who tapped the hump of the statue and whispered "dissendium." To Avery's surprise, the hump opened to reveal a hole large enough for an adult to climb in, but it was dark and impossible to see what was inside.

"I'll hoist you up," Fred whispered, grabbing her suddenly around the middle causing her to squeal, and lifting her up so she could place her feet inside the hole first. George continued to keep lookout while Fred began gesturing wildly, indicating he was impatient for her to slide inside. With a gulp, Avery did so and slid a considerable way down what felt like a stone slide and then landed on a patch of cold, damp earth. Pulling her wand out of her robes, she whispered " _lumos_ " and discovered she was in a very narrow, earthy passageway. It wasn't until Fred and George came down the slide that she realized her mouth was agape and snapped it back shut.

"Neat, isn't it?" George asked, dusting the earth off his pants.

"I suppose," Avery replied, trying to sound unimpressed. She knew that there were many secrets in Hogwarts, but she had never discovered anything like this, and although it was a thrill, she wanted to remain on the surly side with the twins, though by the way they grinned at each other she guessed they could probably tell she was having fun regardless.

"Well, not that you care to know, but this secret passage leads straight to the Honeyduke's cellar in Hogsmeade. But, for today, we'll just talk here," Fred told her, tossing his bag on the floor and taking a seat beside it. His twin followed suit, and Avery took a seat leaning against the tunnel wall opposite them, nervously scratching at the dirt floor, half wishing they would talk about it at Honeyduke's so she could eat some chocolates.

"Mischief managed," George muttered, tapping the parchment in his hand with his wand and then carefully folding and pocketing it.

"What was that?" Avery asked, eying the parchment closely. She had assumed it was a list for her, but it would appear she had been wrong.

"Nothing you need to worry yourself about. Now, on to how we'll get what we need from Snape. Now, I'm sure you've noticed the door inside Snape's classroom that leads to where he keeps his private stash of ingredients-"

"But what you might not have noticed is the gargoyle outside Snape's classroom. He's a bit of a talker, that one, and if Snape finds his ingredients missing, he's bound to ask the blabbermouth if he'd seen anyone go inside. So, what needs to happen is you need to make yourself look like Snape, get the ingredients, and get back out-"

"Meanwhile, we'll be distracting Snape, making sure he doesn't walk in while you're pilfering, and also insuring us an alibi."

"Isn't that a bit convenient, though? Don't you think he'll suspect you were creating a diversion if the ingredients just so happen to go missing when you're- oh I don't know, flinging dungbombs at him?" Avery asked, a bit nervous.

"Well we won't make it obvious," Fred replied, rolling his eyes.

"Honestly, do you think we're new at this?" George added, looking between Avery and his brother, incredulous.

"Well what are you planning to do, then?"

"We'll know where Snape is, and we'll let him think he's caught us in the middle of pulling a prank. That way it's not as though we pulled a prank to distract him, but that he... sort of distracted himself by catching us pranking someone else. Make sense?" George asked, and Avery nodded. It seemed to be an alright plan. But she was still nervous.

"I've never stolen so much as a quill from anyone before. I'm afraid I'll muck something up," she said, searching their eyes, for what she wasn't sure. Reassurance? A way out of the deal?

"You'll be fine, young miss-"

"We have complete faith in you. Here is the list of what we need," George said, digging for a new piece of parchment in his bag and handing it to her across the tunnel.

 _Baneberry_

 _Blind worm's sting_

 _Bulbadox juice_

 _Croakoa_

 _Boomslang skin_

 _Lacewing flies_

 _Asphodel_

 _Dandelion Root_

The list went on and on, containing rarer and rarer items. Items Snape was sure to miss.

"We need as much as you can get of each," George added, as Avery was still trying to find her way to the end of the list.

"This is _a lot_ of ingredients," Avery said, eying them disbelievingly.

"Exactly," they said in unison.

"That's why we said we'd let you go after you got us what we needed from his storeroom. We know it's a bit much, so we feel it's a fair trade," Fred finished.

"But you said I should be able to get it all in one go!"

"And you should!" George said, tossing her a tiny, beaded bag. Avery caught it and looked up at him, confused.

"That's for you," Fred chimed in with a patronizing nod.

"It's bewitched. Tiny, but it can hold loads and loads, and it feels like you aren't carrying more than a few galleons. You can keep it once we're finished," George explained.

"I've got a headache," Avery moaned, her head in her hands once more.

"Ah, well hopefully it's gone by tomorrow, 'cause that's when we'll be getting this over with."

Soon after, the three crawled back out of the witches hump and went along to their respective common rooms, Avery's headache getting no better as the night went on and she tried to write the essays that were already piling up, despite it being only the second day of classes. It was close to midnight, and she was working alone at a table in the Hufflepuff common room, sitting in a yellow armchair at a wooden table with copper detailing. Her books spread out before her, she looked outside the circular windows towards the sky, trying to remember what the name of mean, venus fly trap-looking plant they had been studying was called, as it was the answer to the particular question she was on.

"Venemous tentactula," a fat cactus-like plant on the nearby windowsill whispered.

"Oh right! Thanks," Avery said with a smile, quickly jotting it down.

"What was that?" came a familiar voice. Avery looked over her shoulder to Cedric Diggory in an armchair nearby reading _Quidditch Through the Ages_ , his sandy hair falling into his eyes. Trying hard not to focus too hard on his smile, lest she end up wearing it again by accident, she smiled and rolled her eyes.

"Sorry, I was talking to the plant," she giggled in spite of herself.

"Oh, I should've known. That one on the windowsill has fed me more Herbology answers than I care to admit," he said, smiling back. Avery nodded, wishing she could think of something more to say, but she was always very easily tongue-tied around Diggory. Three years her senior, he was handsome and intimidatingly smart and kind. He was the Hufflepuff ideal, the ideal she could and never would be. She had hardly been joking when she told Marilyn she should be resorted, especially compared to Diggory, who was like some sort of gorgeous moral compass.

"I like your hair that way, by the by," he spoke again, surprising her.

"R-really? She stammered, twisting her finger around a lock of her hair, which today was shoulder-length and dishwater blonde.

"I mean, I have never seen you wear your hair in a way that didn't look good, but this really seems to suit you," he said, smiling again, and she tried again not to mirror it.

"Well, thank you. That's very sweet of you," Avery said, focusing on keeping her cheeks their standard ivory and not letting them flush magenta.

"Well," Cedric began, standing from his chair and stretching, "I think I should be off to bed. The fern by the fire is really good at potions too, just in case you're working on an essay for Snape," he added with a wink. He walked down the passage that led to the boys dormitory and was gone. Avery collapsed back into her chair. She never would have thought Diggory had ever really noticed her, and while it felt nice that he did, when she thought about what she was planning to do the next day her stomach turned. There is no way that Cedric would have stood for someone stealing, even if it was from the most foul teacher in their school. And, if she was being honest with herself, he probably wouldn't have agreed with her impersonating classmates for money, either. She began to think about what Marilyn said, and decided that she was absolutely right. As soon as her favor for the twins was complete, she would give up impersonating people for money and try to better exemplify what it meant to be a Hufflepuff. She wouldn't have enough to buy the broomstick she wanted, but she could always ride one of the school broomsticks or perhaps even settle for a more affordable broom like a Clean Sweep eleven so she wouldn't be completely blown away at try-outs. The point was, it was time to stop doing something she felt she had to hide. She closed her books and rolled up her parchment, placing it neatly in her bag, and went to bed as well, forcing herself to feel at peace with her decision.

The next day, Cedric waved at her during breakfast. She gave him a small wave back and shy a shy smile and turned back to her parchment, afraid that just by looking at him she was pressing her luck somehow. It was just then that the twins sat down across from her and she felt angry at them. She was ready for their deal to be over so that she could give up morphing into other people and focus on being a better version of herself, which sounded incredibly cheesy when she thought about it, but she shrugged it off. Cheesy or not, she needed to do it.

"Ready for the big day?" George asked with a smirk.

"Ready as I'll ever be," Avery replied. She had hardly eaten that morning, and instead of her usual morning toast laid out in front of her, she had a quill and parchment listing details of Snape's appearance. She had been inconspicuously studying him during breakfast. Although Snape was already a bit unpleasant to look at, the longer she stared the more imperfections she noticed, just like when she had studied Dennis the morning before, or the many others who had come before him.

"Good. We'll be keeping an eye on Snape today. We'll meet next to the witch again after class and go from there," Fred replied, helping himself to an apple and some pumpkin juice. George made a face at him, to which Fred rolled his eyes and tossed him an apple from the bowl as well before chugging his juice and standing. Each of them waved and then retreated back to their own table.

"So it's today, then?" Marilyn asked, startling Avery, who had been so focused on everything else she had forgotten her friend was even there.

"Yeah, after class apparently. And after today, I've decided I would follow your advice and stop morphing into other people."

"Oh, excellent! I'm really glad. I think you'll be much happier not having to worry about all that rubbish," Marilyn said, tearing her eyes away from _The Prophet_ long enough to nod at her approvingly.

"What _are_ you reading in that thing every day, anyway?"

"Uh, that's the thing about the news, Avery, it changes every day. But specifically I'm following the Sirius Black case."

"What's there to follow? He even been sighted yet?" Avery asked, finally helping herself to a bit of breakfast before they had to leave for classes.

"Not yet, but they're speculating how he escaped and what he'll do now that he's out. I find it rather fascinating."

"Clearly. I haven't seen you without a paper attached to your face all year," Avery teased, and Marilyn rolled her eyes. "Well it is only the third day, you know."

It was true. It was only the third day but it felt like it had been much, much longer, and she had a suspicious feeling this day was going to drag on and on as well with the anticipation of what they were to do that night.


	3. A Thief's Friend

As classes ended and she made her way to the statue of the one-eyed witch, Avery could practically feel each individual drop of sweat as it emerged from her pores and collected in her palms. She kept trying to tell herself it would be fine, that she would collect what the twins needed as quickly as possible and then get the hell out of there and everything would be fine. She would stop assuming other people's identities, which is what got her into this terrible mess in the first place, and then she would just be a regular student, getting average marks in class, and hopefully making the quidditch team during tryouts next week.

The twins were already waiting for her by the time she arrived at the statue, both looking calm and collected as they poured over a bit of old parchment together, which put her a little more at ease. If they weren't worried, why should she be, she rationalized to herself.

"There you are!" George said before looking up and beaming brightly.

"How was Care of Magical Creatures?" Fred asked politely. Avery cocked an eyebrow at him.

"How'd you know that's where I was? I don't recall giving you my class schedule."

"We knew where you were the same way we know Snape is in the staffroom right now," George began.

"The marauders map," they chorused together.

"And what is that, exactly?"

"We'll show you in the tunnel," Fred said with a wink. Again, George kept lookout while Fred opened the witch's hump and helped Avery slide down first, and she was shortly joined by the twins. Huddled together, each of their wands lit, they leaned over the bit of parchment, and Avery saw that is was actually a map of Hogwarts. Not only that, but it seemed to be bewitched so that you could see the exact movements of everyone on the Hogwarts grounds and inside the castle, little banners labeling each pair of feet trailing up and down the halls, including one reading "Severus Snape,"which was, as the twins had said, in the clearly labeled staffroom.

This is... _brilliant_ ," Avery said, allowing her jaw to hang open this time in the tunnel, but

only slightly; she didn't want to seem too impressed. "Did you make this or where did you get it or _how do I get one_?" Avery continued. She couldn't imagine having this to herself; the things she would be able to do and get away with!

"We nicked it from Filch's office of course, and as far as we know, it's the only one, so I'm afraid you'll have to do without," Fred said, smirking a bit as Avery's face fell.

"So, we've got pockets full of dungbombs. We're going to stand just outside the classroom and talk a little too loudly about how we're planning to set them off just outside the library- you know, catch that afternoon, after-class rush-"

"Snape'll be sure to either follow us, wait till it happens, and pounce, or, he'll nab us right outside the staffroom and punish us on the spot. Either way, he'll be miles away from his class, giving you an easy shot at the ingredients," Fred finished, holding out the map for her to grab.

"We're trusting you with the map. That way if something goes wonky and anyone is coming your way you'll know and you'll be able to get out of there or change your appearance and not get caught," George explained.

"But, you must be very careful with it-"

"It's our most prized possession-"

"Honestly, if it comes down to you or the map getting out of there alive, we want the map."

Avery rolled her eyes and took the map and Fred also handed her some of Snape's robes, which they had previously coordinated for them to steal with the help of a few house elves who were, according to Fred and George, eager to please.

"Be careful with these also. We told the elves we'd have them back by tonight."

"Right," Avery replied, sighing deeply, "we better hurry in case Snape decides to go to the dungeons or something." The twins nodded in response, but did not move.

"Which means I need to change into these, which means you need to not be here."

"Avery, we're all in this together. Everys single step of the way."

"Urm, not this step. Out, please."

Chuckling, the twins made their way up the slide and out the witch's hump. Using the light of her wand, she glanced over the list she had made of Snape's features earlier that day and after changing into his robes focused hard until her body began to take it's new shape. Growing a few inches in height and losing a few inches in hair, she was sure there wasn't a person who looked more like Snape than her in this moment, and she was also sure that this was her least favorite person to pretend to be ever, although at least her profuse sweating at the idea of stealing from Snape's private stash added to her impression of him. Greasier than ever, Avery climbed up the slide and out of the hump, Fred helping her down to the floor.

"Thanks," she murmured, tugging nervously at Snape's cloak.

"I've got to say, what you do it bloody impressive. Although it's a little unsettling to hear your voice come out of Snape's mouth," George whispered. Avery had left everything at the bottom of the tunnel except her wand, the marauders map, and the small beaded purse, which she had stashed in the pocket of Snape's robes. With the map out in front of her, she quickly checked it to make sure Snape was still in the staffroom down the hall. Luckily, he was, as was Filch. Perfect, Avery thought. There was no way that Snape and Filch would be able to resist overhearing the twin plotting a prank. It was sure to distract them both, and she should have no trouble getting what she needed.

"Should I walk you over there? You know, so you can watch him on the map to make sure he doesn't go anywhere?" Avery asked, her alto not at all suiting Snape's lanky frame.

"That would be a terrible idea. We can't be seen together," Fred said, glancing over his shoulder, "and you need to keep your bloody mouth shut. Don't talk to anyone, no matter what you do, or we'll be ruined. Soon as you can, change back into yourself and meet us outside the painting of the fruit bowl in the basement. We'll be there as soon as we can." And with that, Fred and George both turned on their heels and scampered away towards the staffroom. Taking a deep breathe to steady herself, Avery took off at a brisk pace towards the staircase and down towards the dungeons, the map in one sweaty hand and her wand in the other.

One benefit of becoming Snape was that unlike when she pretended to be one of her fellow classmates, people didn't only avoid talking to her, they avoided even walking near her. Walking down the halls as Snape, she couldn't help but notice students veer out of her way and down different passages, unless of course they were Slytherin, who Snape always favored. Even so, they only nodded politely or smiled as they passed by, and Avery made it to Snape's classroom without incident. She did take a brief pause just outside the door to his class to eye the gargoyle that the twins had mentioned. It sat their, lifeless, and she wasn't surprised she had never noticed it before, it being just as dark and murky as the wall behind it and blending in nicely. She also decided she couldn't be too surprised it could talk. She swore sometimes that the suits of armor around the castle moved.

Still careful to try to mimic the way Snape moved and his mannerisms, Avery opened the door to his dungeon classroom and stepped inside, closing the door carefully behind her. Her heart was pounding painfully in her chest as she strode as quickly as she could across the cold stone floor to the wooden door of the stockroom. Grabbing the metal handle, she attempted to pull the door open, but to no avail.

"Oh shit," she muttered. She aimed her wand at the handle and whispered _alohomora_ , but it was fruitless. She should have thought of this. She should have known he wouldn't just leave his supply closet wide open, and if her charm wouldn't work, she wasn't sure how in the world she was going to get what they needed. She didn't know any other spells that would unlock things. She turned and looked wildly around the room, for what she wasn't sure. Panicking, she hurried to his desk and rifled through the drawers, hoping to find a key to the door, but she found nothing. Avery mentally flicked through a list of spells she knew, trying to think of something that would help her get through the door.

 _Bombarda_ , a wicked voice kept whispering to her. Looking from her wand to the door, she shook her head. That spell would destroy the door and would likely blow half his supplies to smithereens as well. Never the less, bombarda was the only spell she could think of, and that little voice kept whispering it over and over and over again, begging her to take the chance and smash through the door. Consulting the only other tool she had in her possession, she looked at the marauders map and realized, to her absolute horror, the twins were indeed outside the library with Filch, but Snape was not. Her eyes flew to the staffroom, but he was not there either. The fear rising like bile in her throat, she scanned the passages leading the dungeons, and sure enough, a pair of feet labeled "Severus Snape" were headed right for her.

Cursing herself for not have consulting the map sooner, she whirled about, looking for something, _anything;_ a place to hide, someone else to disguise herself as. But even if she did transform into someone else, she would still be wearing Snape's robes, and she would still be in his classroom after class time, and he was sure to be upset about that, too. Looking at the map again, the pair of feet representing Snape were getting dangerously close to the pair representing her. He was maybe 15 feet from the door of the classroom. It was too late to run, and even if it weren't, there was no place to run. She couldn't transform, so she had to hide. Making herself as small as she could, she ducked under the table closest to the supply closet, farthest from the door to the classroom, and held her breath.

Seconds later, she heard the door to the classroom open and close. She refused to turn her head, too paranoid that Snape would sense her slightest movement and find her, but she could hear his footfalls coming closer and closer to her hiding place. She closed her eyes tightly, and bit her lip, silently praying he would leave, heart battering against her ribcage. Above her she could hear Snape whisper something in his greasy voice and a door open. Still holding her breath, Avery took the chance and turned her head, seeing the door to the supply room standing wide open. She heard the clink of vials and the crinkle of paper and assumed Snape was collecting ingredients for something.

"Absolutely unbelievable," she could barely hear Snape muttering to himself. She couldn't catch every word, but she did hear something about Dumbledore and Professor Lupin, her new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, and more curious still, something about the full moon. Before too long, Snape's feet reemerged from the supply room and then enter another door across the room, which Avery knew to be Snape's office, and Snape, who was still grumbling about "an undeserved favor," closed the door behind him. It was quiet in the classroom, other than the muffled noises now coming from Snape's office.

Frozen, Avery contemplated what to do. She could crawl her way out of the classroom and run to the painting for the fruit bowl, explain the whole thing to the twins, call off stealing from Snape altogether, and begin giving them a portion of her take from pretending to be other people. But, in order to do that, she wouldn't be able to quit like she had planned, and after this experience, she really did think she should quit. Another option was to crawl into the stockroom, snatch and grab as much as she could and _then_ sneak out, give everything to the twins and wash her hands of the situation. It was a much more risky route, what with the possibility that Snape would hear her and come back out and catch her, but if she didn't, she would still owe the twins. The same voice that wanted her to break down the door of the supply room was pleading for her to crawl into the supply room and take anything she could get her hands on. She wasn't sure where this little voice was coming from, but it was as loud and clear as if it were crouching under that table beside her and whispering into her ear.

Her heart still pounding, and despite her better judgment, the little voice won out, and with a cautious eye on the map, she watched Snape in his office while she slowly crawled from under the table into the storeroom.

Lit by a few floating candles, it would've been hard for anyone who wasn't familiar with the stockroom to find what they needed, especially with their heart racing like Avery's was. However, since one of the detentions she had covered for Ernie MacMillian had been spent cataloging these same ingredients for an entire night, she knew just where most things were. Quickly and quietly Avery grabbed what she could and stuffed them into the tiny, beaded bag, careful to watch the map and make sure Snape was still at his desk. Then, closing the pouch and tucking it back into her pocket, she slid down onto the floor and crawled back out of the room and along the wall farthest from Snape's office, heading for the door out. Placing the map inside her pocket, she watched the door to the office while she carefully reached up and grabbed the door handle, pulling the door open as quietly as she could and crawling out, gently closing the door behind her. She spent a moment on the floor, taking deep steadying breaths. She hadn't been caught. Yet.

"Severus? Are you alright?"

Avery's head snapped in the direction of the voice, only to see Professor Lupin looking down at her curiously, concern lining his features. He was dressed as shabbily as ever and looking incredibly pale. Instead of voicing a response, Avery stood, dusted off her robes, and gave Lupin a curt nod. Worrying that the real Snape might hear Lupin's voice if he kept asking questions, she began to stalk back towards the entrance hall, hoping Lupin would follow, and he did.

"I'm sorry to disturb you, I was just coming to inquire about the potion..." Lupin began, trailing off, as though he was uncomfortable. Avery was in deep trouble now. Even if she could respond, she had no idea what to say. She guessed that maybe the potion in question was why Snape had just been in his supply room, but she couldn't be sure. She needed to say something, though, and whatever it was needed to be short and sweet she could get rid of Lupin (hopefully without him noticing Snape's voice had jumped an octave or two) change back into herself, and meet the twins.

"It's brewing now," she said quietly, doing her best possible imitation of Snape, which wasn't altogether terrible, but certainly not convincing. She was glad her back was to Lupin so he couldn't see her grimace at her own bad impression of the potions master.

"Are you quite alright, Professor? You seem a bit... off."

Avery felt she could get away with a grunt, so that was all she did, afraid if she spoke again he would definitely know something was up.

"Well, I'll be in my office then. You'll let me know when it's finished?" Lupin asked. They were out of the dungeons and in the entrance hall now. Avery glanced over her shoulder at Lupin, who looked a bit puzzled, and grunted again before walking away as quickly as she could, leaving the dumbfounded professor behind. Hurrying as quickly as possible, Avery darted up the stairs and down passages to finally arrive back at the statue of the witch. Careful to check for anyone nearby, she tapped the hump, muttered 'dissendium,' and hoisted herself inside, which was much more difficult without Fred's help. Once at the bottom of the tunnel, she took a shakey breath and smiled. She had done it. It got what she needed for Fred and George, and though her run-in with Lupin wasn't ideal, she hadn't been caught. A rush of adrenaline hit her in the chest, and she did a little dance, laughing with relief. At the beginning of this whole thing, she didn't think she would ever want to transform into anyone else ever again, but it ended up being such a thrill. As she changed back into herself and back into her robes, stuffed Snape's into her bag, and climbed back up and out of the tunnel, she wondered what the twins would be using the ingredients for exactly, and whether they could use a full-time metamorphmagus at Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes.

When she arrived at the painting of the fruit bowl, the twins were already awaiting her, looking a bit disheveled, their shirts wrinkled and ties undone, but upon seeing her in one piece, each of them cheered and punched the air.

"Avery! You're alright! We were worried. Snape didn't follow us. Only Filch did. What happened?" Fred asked in a rush, running his fingers through his hair.

Smiling, Avery pulled the pouch out of her pocket and tossed it to Fred, who opened it. Both he, and George, who was peering over his shoulder, looked ecstatic at it's contents.

"Is this everything from the list?" George asked in awe.

"I believe so. I never thought that entire night I was stuck cataloging his ingredients would be a night I was glad I experienced, but I wouldn'tve been able to have done it otherwise. It was an incredibly close call, but I made it out with the map and everything," she replied, her grin growing ever wider.

"Let's get dinner and you can tell us about it," George said, clapping his hands together. He looked so incredibly happy, and Avery's heart leapt at the sight.

"Alright!" Avery said happily, turning to leave the basement area for the great hall.

"No, no! Here, Avery!" Fred said, laughing. She turned around to see George tickling the pear on the painting, which consequently giggled and caused the entire painting to swing forward, as if on hinges, and reveal a doorway to a marvelous kitchen. Mouth agape again, as it so often seemed to be around the twins, Avery clambered through the doorway after them. Seeming to be quite at home, Fred and George made their way over to a scrubbed wooden table where a gaggle of house elves began dancing around their ankles, offering them food and drinks.

"Pumpkin juice, sirs?"

"Treacle tart?"

"Here! Roast beef and Shepard's pie!"

The twins greeted and thanked the different elves, taking the different trays out of their hands and putting them on the table, beckoning Avery to come and sit, which she did.

"The robes, sirs? We are needing to wash and return them, please," one elf said, tugging on George's pant leg as he sat and proceeded to help himself to some pie.

"Right! Avery has them. Thanks again for your help, it's much appreciated," he replied. Taking the cue, Avery dug the robes out of her bag and handed them to the elf, who was so small she barely seemed able to carry them.

"Thank you, miss!" she cried, scurrying away with the robes in her long fingers.

"Don't worry. The elves are good secret keepers," Fred said, nothing the dubious expression on Avery's face. "So, tell us all about what happened?" he continued, piling food onto his plate and her own. Too excited to eat, Avery launched into the story, and Fred and George were a great audience. Although they gave her scathing looks for not realizing sooner that Snape was heading for the dungeons, they gasped and even laughed in the appropriate places and high-fived her success in the stockroom. They didn't even seem to be bothered by her run in with Lupin, or even curious about what the potion was.

"Lupin and Snape don't seem to be all that close. We've seen Snape glaring at Lupin a time or two, actually. I'm sure nothing will come up again about the run-in, and even if it were to, I don't think it will matter or that they'll trace it back to you. I'm sure the potion is just something for class. Like an antidote or solution of some kind that Lupin keeps in case a kid gets stunned in his class or something," Fred told her, shrugging it off and helping himself to more treacle tart.

"Well, it's everything. Absolutely everything we need for the snackboxes, Fred," George saaid with a smile. He had been going through the bag and checking things off the list as he found them. "Guess this means you're off the hook," he continued, turning to Avery.

"Right... Right..." Avery said, nodding, not sure how happy the sentiment made her. While the events of the night had easily been the most nerve-wracking of her life, they had also been the most exciting, and she wasn't entirely sure she was ready to give it up. As for becoming an ideal Hufflepuff like Cedric, the more she thought about it the more she felt like it was a lost cause. She may have been sorted into Hufflepuff, but she was who she was, and she wasn't Cedric. She enjoyed her adventures with the twins and wanted to have more, and if these types of adventures weren't something a true Hufflepuff would engage in, then maybe she wasn't a true Hufflepuff, like she had told Marilyn a thousand times.

"You alright, there, Avery? I thought you'd be pleased," Fred said through a mouthful of tart.

"Well, it's just... These snackboxes. This business you're starting... I think I might like to be a part of it," Avery started, her eyes darting between the twins and her plate as she played with her food, trying hard not too seem too interested.

"Really?" the twins asked.

"Do you always need to speak in unison like that? What is that, anyway? Some sort of weird twin thing?"

"What did you have in mind?" Fred asked, trying to stifle a laugh.

"Well, I would rather not steal to be perfectly honest," Avery began, "but should you need someone to sneak around for you or cause a distraction, or you know, whatever, I think I might like to help. Maybe I could even chip in a few galleons, you know, if I were to continue doing... What I do..." The twins looked at each other and grinned, and Avery's heart jumped into her throat. Maybe they wanted her to be a part of the business as much as she wanted to be part of it.

"Alright, Avery," Geroge said, turning from his twin to face Avery, smirking. The twins seemed to get about twice as handsome when they smirked like that, she thought.

"We'd love to have you on the team. You can chip in what you can and help with anything we need. In exchange, we will help find you business as well as make sure anyone who does know about your business keeps quiet. Also, when the business takes off, we'll be sure to pay you back for your investments." Avery thrust out her hand and shook each of the twins' in agreement, thinking, but not saying, the thrill of it all would be payment enough.


	4. The Keepers

Deciding it would be best to lay low after robbing Snape's stores, Avery and the twins agreed to avoid each other during the weekend and reconvene the following Monday night at the statue of the one-eyed witch. During the upcoming meeting the twins had promised to go into more detail about the products they had in mind for their business and how Avery could help in the making of them. As such, Avery spent most of her weekend writing in the Hufflepuff common room, far way from the twins, unable to believe how much homework she had in just the first week of school. Marilyn worked alongside her for the most part, talking of little else than Draco Malfoy and the hippogriff attack during the Gryffindor and Slytherin Care of Magical Creatures lesson, which had taken place just before theirs on Friday.  
"I just can't believe Dumbledore is allowing Hagrid to continue teaching the class! His first lesson and someone is maimed. Can you imagine?" She kept saying. It didn't matter how many times Avery pointed out that it was Malfoy's fault for insulting the creature, or that Hagrid was a great person, or that Snape mentally and emotionally maimed students everyday and no one fired him, no argument would change her mind that Hagrid should have been sacked on the spot. It was only when Marilyn refered to Hagrid as an "oaf" and Avery pointed out that Marilyn was starting to sound a lot like Malfoy that Marilyn finally changed the subject to Friday's quidditch tryouts.  
"Oh bloody hell..." Avery said, staring blankly at the fire. It was Sunday night and she had completely forgotten about the fact that she didn't have a proper broom for tryouts, and since she agreed with the twins she would be giving them a portion of her earnings to help fund Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes, there was little hope of earning enough money in the next few days to get the broom she wanted in time.  
"I'm sure the school brooms will be fine," Marilyn said, as if reading her mind. "You practice at home on a Comet 260 anyway, why not tryout on one? You'd probably be more comfortable on it, anyway." Avery nodded, although she didn't really agree. She may have practiced on an old broom, but she didn't want to compete on one. Not again. She wondered vaguely if it would make it in time if she ordered a Cleansweep 11 from Diagon Alley, knowing that if she did it would deplete her entire savings.  
Shortly after, Cedric entered the common room, smiling and waving hello to several of the other Hufflepuffs spending their Sunday evening gathered around the fire, and posted a quidditch tryout reminder on the bulletin board.  
"How d'you think our odds look this year, eh, Ced?" a male sixth year that Avery didn't recognize called out from a plush armchair near the fire. Cedric smiled again and replied, "good, as long as you aren't trying out." A few of the students nearest him laughed, and Cedric beamed. Avery very pointedly look back down at her potions essay revision on shrinking solutions and focused hard on her mouth, making sure it wasn't mirroring Cedric's.

"Think you'll try out this year, Avery?" Cedric asked from across the room. She turned to look at him again, trying hard not to flush from the memory of her embarrassing attempt to make the team the previous year.  
"Maybe," she called back, trying to appear nonchalant, shrugging her shoulders. Cedric nodded and began probing the rest of the students around the fire as to whether or not they would be going out for the team. While she worked, she overheard Cedric mention that they needed a beater, chaser, and keeper.

"I'd forgotten about last year," Marilyn mumbled, almost apologetically, although Avery could have sworn she saw the edges of Marilyn's lips twist like she was fighting off a smirk.  
"I've _tried_ to forget about last year," Avery muttered back glumly. Last year she had tried out for keeper, but since her broom was so old and she was still new to the game she just couldn't keep up, which is why she had been working so hard to afford a new broom this year. She had been practicing hard all Summer, and she had vastly improved; as far as she was concerned, her broom was the only thing standing in her way of being chosen as the new Hufflepuff keeper.

Closing her books and folding her parchment, she bade goodnight to Marilyn and headed for the dormitory, glancing over her shoulder towards Cedric and the others who were still by the fire, hoping to catch him watching her leave, though she would've hated to admit it. But he wasn't, he was talking to another sixth year Hufflepuff girl animatedly, gesturing to the flyer he had posted. Avery lay in her bed that night, staring up at the canopy of her four-poster bed, anxious about the broom and about tryouts and about the business and about boys, until her mind was so worn and tired from running in circles that she fell into an uneasy sleep.

Other than seeing them as they passed in the hallways or at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall, Avery did not see the twins until the following evening near the statue. Beaming brightly as she walked towards them, the twins were as handsome and disheveled as ever. She was impatient to see them and learn more about their business plan.

"Hello! Shall we?" Avery said, not wanting to waste time, stepping round the statue to where Fred usually hoisted her up.

"Actually, we thought we'd take our meeting elsewhere today," George said, placing an arm around her shoulder and steering her down the hall, Fred walking along her other side.

"So, notice anything unusual in potions today?" Fred asked with a smirk. Whether Avery had or not, it was apparent that Fred had by the smug look he was wearing.

"He did seem a bit grumpier than normal today," Avery replied.

"He was taking points left and right in our class, _even the from Slytherins_. He must have noticed that everything went missing and is taking it out on anyone he can, since he doesn't have anyone to blame for it. He knows we can't have done it, since we were with Filch, and he doesn't have any other usual suspects. It worked out bloody brilliant," Fred told her, grinning from ear to ear. Avery may not have known them very long at all, but she very much liked the twins, especially when they were this happy. It reminded her of the manic sort of happiness you often see in children with new toy. And to know that part of the reason they were so jovial was because of her made her want to help them with their shop even more.

"Ever heard of the Room of Requirement, Avery?" George chimed in, his arm still resting lightly on her shoulders.

"Can't say that I have."

"It's where we go to work on our products," Fred explained. "It's this lovely room that generates whatever it is that you need. All you have to do," he continued, stopping suddenly in front of blank stretch of wall in an empty corridor, "is walk back and forth in front of this wall three times, thinking about whatever it is that you require, and a door will appear."

"You're joking," Avery said, shaking her head in disbelief. If there really were such a wonderful room, why hadn't she heard about it until now?

"Watch and see," George said, wriggling his eyebrows. Then, looking pensive, he passed back and forth along the stretch of empty wall three times, and just as Fred had told her, a door appeared.

" _Whoa_ ," Avery breathed, wondering when she would stop being so surprised by Hogwarts' many secrets. George took hold of the door handle, opened it, and ushered Avery and his twin inside.

If she had been amazed by just the door, Avery was absolutely floored by what lay beyond it. It was a large, rectangular room, books lining the entire west wall and bright lamps hanging from the ceiling. Down the center of the room were a pair of long stone tables, upon which were beakers and burners and scales. It looked like an extremely advanced lab, only not as sterile feeling with the warm stone walls. Along the back wall were high cabinets and a built in sink with a strange looking faucet bearing three different spouts. In the east corner was a fireplace, happily crackling, a large couch, along with a table piled with sweets and pumpkin juice.

"Nice, isn't it? We have plenty of reference material," Fred began, gesturing to the wall of books, "all the equipment we could ever need," he continued, pointing to the tables, "and even a break area," he finished as he threw himself onto the sofa, folding his arms behind his head and sinking comfortably into the couch.

"Yeah, it's alright," Avery said breathlessly, eyes wide as she searched the room, trying to take it all in. While Fred remained comfortable, George steered Avery over to one of the long tables with all the beakers and scales and began to explain that last semester they had stumbled upon the Room of Requirement when they were trying to hide from Filch. They had used it briefly after that to begin the production of some of their merchandise, but then Summer came and this was the first time they had been back in the Room of Requirement since. Avery had been nodding long as George spoke, letting her eyes wander over the equipment spread across the table. Her eyes fell on a platter of was looked like half-melted, brightly colored taffy candies. She began to lift a bright pink one off the platter, when a large hand covered hers. Looking up, she saw that Fred was now across the table from her, shaking his head, his hand over hers.

"You don't want to try one of those just yet, Avery," he said, eyes twinkling, "these are one of our products."

"I thought you were starting a joke shop, not a candy store," Avery replied, brow furrowed in confusion. From there, the twins launched into their introduction of the skiving snackbox.

"So one half of the candy will make you sick and the other half will cure you. Perfect for skipping the classes you can't stand. We made some progress last year, it's just that they have some nasty side effects..." George explained, scratching the back of his head and avoiding eye contact.

"So, I hope your marks in potions are good, cause we'll need help adjusting the recipes as well as testing the products," Fred said.

" _We're testing them?_ " Avery asked. She had decent marks in potions, but she wasn't sure she wanted to eat any of her concoctions.

"Well of course. How can we expect anyone else to try them if we won't ourselves? There are plenty of first aid supplies here so I reckon we'll be just fine if something doesn't function as planned... You said you wanted in, and this is part of being in," Fred said, almost accusingly as he caught the unsure look flashing across Avery's features.

"You're right, you're right," Avery said, probably more to herself than either of the twins, heaving a deep breath.

"Excellent. We were planning on meeting on the nights we don't have quidditch, so Sundays, Mondays, and Tuesdays. Maybe the occasional Saturday meeting if we're really onto something, but we'd like to keep that night free so we can maintain a social life, and you can do your homework," George explained.

"Yes, we maybe be manufacturing candies that help you skive off class, but your education is actually very important to us," Fred nodded along. Avery's heart seemed to stop momentarily.

"Well, the thing is, I am trying out for the Hufflepuff team on Friday. If I make it we'll have practice Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday..." she trailed off, torn. She wanted to help the twins very much, but she had been dying to be on the house team ever since her first year, and she didn't want to give up the opportunity to play keeper just as much as she didn't want to give up the opportunity to be a part of the Weasley enterprise. "Maybe I can help out on Saturdays and Sundays and in between classes or something," she added, hoping it would be enough, but judging by the look the twins gave each other, it didn't seem to be.

"We didn't think you had much else going on. We were kind of thinking you'd be on board full time," Fred started, biting his lip, looking frustrated.

"Well, I mean it's not for sure that I'll make the team," she said apologetically, even though it hurt her to say. "I mean, I really _really_ want to be on the team but I really want to work with you also."

"But you said you would give us a portion of the money you make by faking identities. How on earth are you going to have time to do any work for other students in between helping us with snackboxes, classes, and quidditch?" Fred asked disbelievingly. When he put it that way, Avery wasn't sure what to say. It certainly was a lot to juggle, and although she wanted to, she wasn't sure she could handle it.

"I...I'm not sure, really," she replied half heartedly. The hopelessness of the situation was quickly draining her. Either way, she was going to have to give up something that she didn't want to. She had been training hard for the quidditch team since the previous year, and she had wanted to be on it since as far back as she could remember. But she really wanted to help the twins, and even though helping them hadn't been an old dream, it was one that she was already passionate about, despite it's newness. The twins stared at her, as if waiting for her to make a choice between them or quidditch.

"I... I'm sorry. I've wanted to be on the team as long as I can remember... I'm sorry."

Fred, who looked nothing short of furious, wouldn't make eye contact with her. George, on the other hand faked a smile and said, "we understand. It's a shame, but we understand. Good luck at tryouts."

Avery nodded solemnly and apologized once more before leaving and heading back to her common room. She felt defeated and hurt that she let the twins down. But the more she thought about it, the more frustrated she was with Fred being so angry she wouldn't give up quidditch for the shop. She shouldn't be expected to drop everything for them. He should've respected her choice and tried to be cordial, like Fred. As she walked, she got angrier and angrier as the exchange replayed over and over in her head. So, when she arrived back at her room, she owled her order to the broom shop in Diagon Alley, deciding that if she was going to indeed focus on quidditch, she was going to do it on a Cleansweep eleven.

The following days Avery didn't speak to either of the twins, though she often saw them at mealtimes or walking through the halls together, seeming just as happy and carefree as ever. She assumed that they were working, as they had planned, on the skiving snackboxes in the evenings without her. Even though she was still upset with them, it stung a bit to know that she wasn't missed, although she could hardly be surprised by it. The twins had been working on this together long before she came along, and they would be working on it together long after she was gone.

That Friday, Marilyn walked with Avery down to the quidditch pitch, brand new broom in hand.

"Nervous?" Marilyn asked, hugging herself as the chilly September air whipped her hair about her freckled face. She had promised Avery she would stay and watch the tryouts, thinking good thoughts.

"Not really," Avery lied through the tightness in her throat. She felt jittery, like she had had too much sugar or something. She knew that she was as ready as she would ever be, but that didn't stop her heart from banging against her chest.

Marilyn said goodbye and goodluck to Avery, who was finding it harder and harder to breathe, and found her way up into the stands to take a seat. Avery, however, stepped out onto the pitch and was greeted by the entire existing Hufflepuff team and the few who were attempting to make the team; One surly looking sixth year girl, two fifth year boys, who appeared to be friends, a fifth year girl, as well as a fourth and a second year girl. Cedric smiled and waved as she walked across the pitch to join the other hopefuls. Scanning the stands for Marilyn, trying to distract herself from the growing panic in her stomach, she found her sitting not too far away, her nose buried in a copy of _The Prophet_. She also noticed only a few rows in front of Marilyn were none other than Fred and George, who were waving Hufflepuff flags and beaming. She couldn't believe they were there to support her when she had essentially chosen the team over helping them with their business, Fred being as mad as he was. Heart in her throat, she waved and smiled back, thinking maybe they valued her not only as a tool to further their business, but as a friend after all.

Cedric then cleared his throat loudly and brought Avery back to the reality of the situation; the tryouts were about to begin.

"I'd like to thank you all for coming out today. We're really excited to start this season. We already have some great players, and I can already tell you are all as well," Cedric said, and Avery glanced around at the hopefuls again. She thought he was probably being a little generous with that comment, but then again that was how Cedric was; ever polite and kind to a fault.

"As quidditch captain, I'm going to have to make some very hard decisions today, but I'm excited to see what you've got and I hope you're excited too. Now, as you may have heard, we are in need of a chaser, beater, and keeper, and we'll hold tryouts for the positions in that order. So, if you think you'd like to be beater, come with me. Otherwise, have a seat."

Avery and all but the sixth year girl and two fifth year boys took a seat. Cedric and the existing members of the team proceeded to run drills with the potential new beaters, and Avery watched closely, and it turned out that if these three were any indication of how the rest of them would do, Cedric hadn't been too generous after all. Both the fifth year boys were exceptionally strong and hit most of the marks they were given. However, it was the sixth year girl in Avery's opinion who preformed the best. She was a lot quicker than she looked and packed a powerful swing. After the beaters were finished, it was time for drills for the chasers. The fifth and fourth year girls stood and began to run drills up and down the pitch, Cedric playing keeper for the purposes of tryouts, trying to pass the quaffle through the hoops behind him. As Avery watched, it occurred to her that it would be just her and the second year competing for keeper. Trying to be subtle, Avery stole a few sideways glances at her and decided the young girl would be no match for her. She was small and almost frail looking with huge brown eyes and mousy brown hair, a Comet 260 laying across her lap. Avery was sure she would be making the team this year.

Finally, it came time for the keepers. The chaser hopefuls taking their seats on the grass, Avery and the second year, who shortly after introduced herself as Anne to Cedric, stood with brooms in hand.

"Alright, Anne, you take the posts first. We'll have Michael and Bridget take shots, and all you have to do is block them," Cedric explained. Anne smiled, mounted her broom, and took off. Michael and Bridget, the Hufflepuff chasers, took the quaffle and soared into the air, but Cedric didn't. He watched the chasers attempt to make goals from below for a moment next to Avery, who was surprised to see how well Anne was fairing. Her broom was old, but she was quick.

"Think you've got a shot?" Cedric asked, still staring up at Anne as she dodged to the left to protect a goal Bridget was attempting.

"I'd say so," Avery replied, even though it wasn't going to be quite as easy as she had thought. She assumed the quaffle would knock the tiny second year right off her broom, but she was holding her own and had only allowed one goal out of seven shots. Cedric gave Avery a quick grin and a nod before mounting his broom and taking to the air, observing Anne from the above and sides now. Before long, Anne and Cedric returned to the ground, Bridget and Michael waiting in the air with the quaffle. Anne had only allowed three goals out of thirty shots; it was an excellent run, but Avery was sure she could do better.

"Alright, your turn," Cedric said excitedly, rubbing his hands together in the cold. He was smiling and Avery couldn't help but smile back before she nodded, jumped on her brand new broom, and took off for the goal posts. Upon seeing her shoot off into the air, she heard the Weasley twins shout encouragements loudly, and Avery's grin grew even wider. She hovered in front of the posts, ready. She watched as Michael and Bridget nodded silently to each other before advancing on her, passing the quaffle between them as they went. She was ready, watching the ball like a hawk, knees tight around her broom and hands resting lightly on it's end, ready to throw them up and block the goal. She was watching them so closely, she felt like everything was in slow motion. But when Bridget tossed the quaffle at the rightmost goal post, the only thing that seemed to be in slow motion was Avery. It was a strange feeling, like her body just wasn't keeping up with her mind. The quaffle passed through the hoop, and Avery shook her head in disbelief. Michael collected the quaffle and they began advancing on her and scored again. Avery shook out her hands, telling herself that is was nerves. That's why her head felt so cloudy. And it continued like that. The quaffle would soar through one of the three goal posts and Avery with each failed block would shake her head or her hands and curse her nerves and grow redder and redder. Fred and George had cheered her on loudly through the first five scored goals, and then grew silent, either worried they were distracting her or quickly becoming embarrassed of her and not wanting people to think they were in any way associated.

The chasers took thirty shots, just like they had with Anne, and she had only managed to block eighteen of them. When it was over and the chasers and Cedric returned to the ground, Avery almost bolted on her broom back towards the castle, too embarrassed to return to the pitch, but she decided that would probably only make matters worse, so with her head hung she landed hard on the pitch and threw her broom over her shoulder. Cedric made a speech about how wonderful tryouts had been and reiterated that he had some very hard decisions to make, but Avery barely heard, her eyes hot with angry tears, her throat tight again. When she thought she heard Cedric say goodbye, she turned on her heel and walked as quickly as she could off the pitch. But she didn't head back for the castle. She made her way across the grounds, past Hagrid's hut, and towards the whomping willow, so furious with herself that she intended to hurl either herself or her new broom at it's trunk.

"Avery! Avery!"

"Where the hell are you heading!? Slow down!"

"Go away!" her voice came out strangled. The twins were running behind her, trying to catch up. She was only ten feet from the whomping willow, well within the reach of it's twitching branches, broom held high over her head, ready to throw it to it's destruction, when Fred caught up and grabbed it out of her hands and George's wound their way around her middle, pulling her backward. He dragged her back about fifteen feet before collapsing, with Avery in his lap. Furious, she pushed herself off of him and sat a foot or two away, hugging and burying her head in her knees. She didn't want the twins to see her this way, but she wasn't ready to stop being angry and upset yet. Much to her relief, they said nothing while she bawled. She couldn't believe how poorly she had done. Evene worse than the previous year. Over the summer she easily blocked one hundred percent of the shots her friends had taken on her. She thought her new broom would have made it even easier. She had practiced the day before with Jeffery, and she had done perfectly. But maybe Marilyn was right. Maybe she should've just used a Comet 260, like the second year had. She couldn't believe that the second year would be playing keeper and she would be watching from the sidelines again this year. She wound her fingers in her hair and inhaled sharply, shallowly.

"Avery, its very late. Let us take you back to the castle," came Fred's voice in her ear. She didn't respond or look up, but she felt a set of hands on each of her arms dragging her to her feet. The twins half carried her back to the Hufflepuff common room that night in silence.


	5. Night-time Strolls and Nosebleed Nougat

The weekend passed at the pace of a funeral March for Avery. She had attempted at first to be mature and go about her normal routine, pretending her embarrassing attempt at making the Hufflepuff quidditch team and her even more embarrassing tantrum had never happened, but by lunch time on Saturday, she decided she had no qualms with wallowing anymore.

She had been sitting with Marilyn, poking at her lunch, but hardly eating, when Marilyn said, "for what it's worth, I can't believe how poorly you did." Slowly, Avery turned to face her friend, hurt etching lines in her face. It came from out of nowhere, and the harshness of it stung her deeper than she would have admitted.  
"Oh don't be so sensitive," Marilyn scoffed. "It was a compliment. I just meant that you are such a good player it's hard to believe you did badly. Don't linger on it."  
"Well excuse me for being 'sensitive' but that was a terrible way to phrase it," Avery spat, looking back down at her meal.  
"Its quite alright," Marilyn replied, either not detecting Avery's tone, or, more likely, purposefully ignoring it. Whichever it was Avery didn't care, it was enough to make her push herself into a standing position and leave the table without another word. As she left, she noticed Fred and George giving her matching sheepish looks, but to her relief they did not follow her. She wished they hadn't the night before, too. Although she was grateful for their helping getting back to the common room, she was terribly embarrassed of her outburst. She hadn't cried that hard and done something that reckless in her entire life; the whomping willow easily could have turned her into mush with one feel swing of it's branches. And the fact that it was over quidditch made her feel even more foolish. She should have remained stoic and polite, but she had acted like a toddler who had been told it was nap time. She should've just accepted she didn't make the team and went to Fred and George, who were kind enough to come and cheer her on, and asked to be a part of their business again. But after them seeing how childish she could be, she wasn't sure she could ever look them in the eye again, much less work with them.  
So she made her way down the common room, still miserable, but holding herself together nicely in front of anyone she saw. She was heading straight through the common area to her dorm when she noticed Anne, the new Hufflepuff keeper, sitting by the fire, writing a letter. No doubt it was a letter home, gloating about making the team. Avery kept walking, white hot anger and shame burning it's way from her stomach and up her throat. She knew it wasn't Anne's fault, but she couldn't help but hate her in that moment. Anne would more than likely remain the house keeper until she graduated, so unless she made some sort of huge mistake or bowed out, Avery would never have a chance to make the team as a keeper again.  
When she got to her room, sat down, and made to drag the curtain around her four poster, when she spotted her new Cleansweep in the corner, where she had tossed it in frustration the night before.  
She stared at it, crestfallen. She had spent all she had on that broom and now she wouldn't even be able to use it, but after a few minutes of feeling sorry for herself, she realized who could.  
Grabbing the broom, Avery made for the common room, glad to see that Anne was still cozy by the fire, quill between her teeth. Avery walked over and stopped just in front of her. When Anne looked up, Avery spoke.  
"Listen, I know I wasn't a very good sport yesterday, and I'm sorry. You flew beautifully and I know you're going to make a great keeper. I bought this broom to use for the season, but since I won't be playing, I would really love it if you used my broom." She held out the Cleansweep to Anne, who's mouth hung open.  
"Oh no, I couldn't," she said, eyes wide.  
"Yes you could, and you should. I saw you're riding a 260, and if you're that good on that old of a broom, I can't imagine how well you'd do on this. Hufflepuff needs to win this year. But it's just a loan. I like to ride in the summer," she explained. Anne held out her hand and took the broom from Avery.  
"Thank you, Avery... I'm sorry-" Anne began, but Avery held up her hand and stopped her.  
"You have nothing to be sorry about. You're fantastic and I'm sorry if how I acted made you feel otherwise, even if just for a moment. I'm very sad not to be part of the team," she paused, fighting to keep her voice from breaking, "but the better keeper won and I look forward to seeing you and the others play this season. Congratulations again," Avery ended on a note of finality, turning and retreating back to her room.

She felt a little better after that, knowing that her broom would be put to good use and that it would help the Hufflepuff team during the season. And apologizing made her feel a little better about her outburst, too, although not good enough for her to leave her room the rest of the weekend. In her pajamas she kept her curtains drawn, doing her homework, and reading a little ahead into her potion books, bookmarking pages she thought might be helpful to Fred and George. She still wasn't sure she could face them, even just to tell them page numbers, but it was nice to focus on something other than her failure.  
On Monday morning Avery dressed quickly and quietly a half hour earlier than she normally would have. She wanted to have breakfast alone, or at least no where near Marilyn. She had told Avery through her half drawn curtains that she needed to "lighten up," but Avery remained silent until she heard Marilyn's retreating footsteps. She needed to be upset for a bit, and she was worried if she ate with Marilyn she would feel guilted into letting the whole matter go, and she refused to let that happen.  
Crawling out the portrait hole, Avery was surprised to see the twins were also awake and waiting for her near the portrait of the fruit bowl.  
"Hello, Avery... Alright?" Fred asked. Avery shrugged.  
"Fine, fine," she said with a nod, shoving her hands into her pockets, not sure what to do with them. The air between them was tense and it made Avery feel guilty. She wished again that they had just returned to their common room after the tryouts instead of following her.  
"We were wondering if you wanted to eat with us in the kitchens today? You know, avoid the crowds in the great hall."  
"It's six a.m. It's not exactly a madhouse at this hour," Avery chuckled, but reached over and tickled the pear regardless. If they had gone to the trouble of waking up so early, she didn't want to be rude by declining. Besides, this completely eliminated the chances of running into anyone she didn't want to see.  
The three filed in to the kitchens and were ushered to a table by the over-accommodating house elves, who wasted no time in shoving plates of eggs and toast at them. They ate stingily in silence for a few moments before George spoke.  
"We're really sorry about your not making the team," he said. Avery glanced up and saw he was looking at her very solemnly. She sighed deeply.  
"Its alright. I'm just sorry about how I acted afterwards."  
"We didn't realize it meant that much to you," Fred added, looking down at his eggs.  
"Yeah, well..." Avery trailed off, not sure how to vocalize how it felt or why she cared so much. So instead she poked at her eggs also, letting the silence hang between them.  
"We know you're still upset, but we also wanted to let you know that we would love to have your help, if you haven't already made other plans for your free time," George said.

"While I was moping in my pajamas all weekend? No," Avery scoffed, still pushing her eggs around her plate. "Actually, the most productive thing I did other than homework was mark some pages in my potion book that I thought might help with the snackboxes." As soon as she said it, the twins went from solemn to ecstatic.

"Really!? Brilliant! I mean," George stammered, putting his sober expression back on, "I'm still sorry about quidditch, but, it's just... really nice to have you on _our_ team." Avery smiled at him and took a bite from her breakfast, unable to admit that she was glad of that, too.

As planned, Avery, Fred, and George met that night and Tuesday night that week to work on the skiving snackboxes. And while Fred and George practiced quidditch Wednesday through Friday, Avery found herself in the room of requirement anyway, either to flip through the books or to do her own homework. It was a nice getaway from the Hufflepuff common room, where Marilyn was often lurking. She hadn't again attempted to apologize, but Avery had often noticed her eying her expectantly, both in the common area and in their dorm, but Avery refused to talk first. As far as she was concerned, Marilyn's comment had been rude, no matter how well intended, and she deserved a real, face to face apology. So, other than seeing her in class and in the evenings and mornings in her dorm, Avery didn't go near her.

Over the weekend, Avery and the twins worked in the lab and created several different variations of a candy called the nosebleed nougat, and that Monday, the twins sat her down and told her it was time they tested it out.

"Alright. You have fun with that," Avery said with raised eyebrows, sliding the platter back across the table towards the brothers.

"Are you trying to tell me that you don't have the confidence in our products to taste them?" Fred asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Actually, quite the opposite. I am _so_ positive that the product is going to work that I don't want to try it because, lets face it, nosebleeds are no fun."

"Look," George said, arching an eyebrow, "we have three variations. We'll each try one. It's as fair as fair can be." He reached over and lifted one of the pieces of nougat, which had been labeled "type one," and bit into it. Fred and Avery watched him closely, and after about two minutes, there was still no blood, but his nose had began to turn a deep, deep red color.

"I don't think type one is working. Your nose is just really red. Trying the antidote half, see what happens," Avery reasoned, pushing the "type one" antidote half towards him. George wasted no time in biting into it, only his nose didn't get any less red. In fact it's redness only seemed to be accentuated by the fact that it suddenly began to swell rapidly, like a clown's nose.

"Oh bollocks, that's not good," Avery said worriedly, racing over to the medicine cabinet, looking for something that might help. She found a bottle of shrinking solution, and ran back over to the table. George was cursing under his breath, hands on his face, trying to contain his now softball-sized nose, and Fred was laughing hysterically next to him. Using the dropper that was inside the bottle, Avery droppered some of the solution onto George's nose, and it shrank quickly back to it's normal size. It was still quite red, but that seemed to be gradually fading, too.

"Thanks Avery," George sighed gratefully before slapping Fred on the back of head, as he was still chortling on the stool beside him.

"Your turn," George said bitterly, pushing the plate over to Fred. He took a bite in between laughs, chewed, and swallowed. They sat and waited, but after ten minutes, nothing happened. His nose or any other part of his body, as far as they could tell, changed.

"Huh, must've been a dud," Fred said shrugging. With a smirk, he handed Avery the third nougat sample. "Enjoy."

Swallowing hard, Avery took a bite of the sugary sweet candy. It certainly tasted good, she thought. Again, they waited about ten minutes, but nothing happened.

"Well that was a little disheartening," Fred muttered, and Avery had to agree. She had hoped there would be at least a little blood so they would know they were heading in the right direction, but after putting so much work into the candy and not getting any indication of how well they had done, she couldn't help but feel a bit crestfallen.

"Seems type one is our best hope so far though. It had some reaction, and that's something," George chimed in, whose nose was now back to it's normal shade. "I think it'll have to be enough for tonight, anyway. It's getting late," he went on, looking at his wristwatch. It was half past eleven, and if they were caught out of bed at this time of night they would easily lose points and gain detention.

"Agreed. We'll just have to work on it more tomorrow. I'll try to see if I can find anything helpful in between class," very replied, gesturing to the wall of books. So, they left the room of requirement, Fred and George with the marauders map in front of them, making sure the way was clear.

"Doesn't seem to be anyone on you path, but you better go quickly; that could change in a moment," Fred told her.

"Right. See you tomorrow, then," she said with a wave, and they split up, the twins off for the Gryffindor tower and Avery towards the basement. She went as quickly and quietly as she could, careful to peer around corners before she turned them, in case Filch or Mrs. Norris were prowling about. Luckily, she found her way into the kitchen corridor without incident. Just as she was about to tap on the barrels to gain entrance to the common room, the lid swang open to reveal Cedric.

"Avery! What are you doing out at this hour?" He said, crawling through the entry way to stand next to her in the corridor.

"I could ask you the same thing," Avery replied, half kidding, half defensively. After all, who was he to question her where she had been?

"I'm a prefect, remember?" he chuckled, "I was just doing my rounds."

"Oh, right," Avery laughed, scratching her neck nervously. "I've been... Well... I've been trying to avoid the common room lately and I sort of lost track of time," she stammered. It was a poor explanation, but it seemed to be enough for Cedric though. He waved away her meager excuse and smiled again, his teeth glaringly white and straight, even in the low light of the passaegway.

"I'll let you out of detention this time," he teased. "Actually, I sort of owe you."

"For what, exactly?" Avery said, confused. The last interaction they had was tryouts, and she hardly did anything there that would warrant him owing her a favor.

"For lending Anne your broom. It was very generous of you," he said, looking down at her. He was exceedingly tall compared to her, especially today (she had shrank herself about four inches, hoping it would make her harder to notice as she crept back to the common room).

"O-oh! Not at all. It was the least I could do after I took not making the team so poorly. It's not like she needed my broom to be great, anyway. She is a very skilled flier." Avery felt herself growing hotter and hotter as she spoke, nervous and rambling.

"I'm not sure what you mean. You got quiet, yes, and took off pretty quickly afterwards... But that's only natural when you're upset. I've handled smaller things much worse myself, actually. You really shouldn't be too hard on yourself."

"Really? I can't imagine you... um... handling something badly. You just seem so level headed," Avery replied, shifting her weight from foot to foot, full of nervous energy.

"Well, when you're passionate about something it's easy to get carried away," he smiled again, his eyes flickering down and back up to meet her gaze.

"Right, right, that makes sense," Avery said, smiling broadly back. Suddenly Cedric chuckled.

"That looks familiar," he said, gesturing to her face. It took her a moment to realize what he meant, but her hand quickly flew up to cover her mouth, which she had unintentionally changed to mirror his.

"I'm sorry," she muttered, focusing hard on her normal, gap-toothed grin, willing it to change back. "I don't do it consciously, it's just when I like someone's features I kind of accidentally end up with them."

"Don't be sorry; it's actually quite a compliment," Cedric said, his smile more dazzling by the minute. Unsure what to say, Avery just stared back at him, trying to breathe evenly. She felt stupid to be so flustered by a boy. She had always told herself that the way she felt about Cedric was just a silly crush, and very immature of her to be hung up on; most all the girls fancied him, of course. He was older and handsome and exceedingly kind, and if he were to choose a girl, it seemed unlikely that he would choose an underclassman when there were so many beautiful, intelligent, and kind girls in his own year. But standing there, just looking at each other in the dimly lit corridor in front of the common room, she briefly thought that maybe it wasn't just a meaningless crush, and that maybe, just maybe, the feelings could be mutual.

But, Cedric's eyes quickly went from exuding kindness and interest to pure horror. Before Avery could ask what was the matter, she felt something thick and warm dribbling down her lips. Her hand flew to her nose and she quickly realized it was bleeding. The effects of the nougat must have been delayed, but they were in full swing now, the front of her robes quickly becoming sodden in blood.

"Are you alright? We have to get you to the hospital wing. Tilt your head back, I'll lead the way," Cedric said urgently, resting his arm around Avery's waist and taking her back the way she had just came. She apologized thickly and, before long, couldn't stop herself from laughing. She couldn't believe her luck. It seemed to be an unfailing rule that, no matter what, she would always embarrass herself in front of Cedric Diggory. Cedric began to chuckle with her, although his voice seemed to be laced with concern as her described when to step up the stairs or asked her if she got nosebleeds often. Of course she couldn't explain the real reason behind it, so she lied and said she had no idea what could've caused it. He kept his arm around her the entire way to the hospital wing, where he reluctantly bade her goodbye in order to go preform his prefect duties. Although Avery previously never would have counted a night in the hospital wing a pleasant evening, she couldn't help but feel pleased that they had gotten somewhere with the snackboxes after all, and that there may a chance she could get somewhere with Cedric, too.


	6. The Nougat, The Notes, and The Favor

**Author's note: Just a quick thank you to those of you who have been consistently reading and reviewing. I appreciate your thoughts and interest in the story, and apologize for the delay in updates. Between work and lessons I type these chapters mostly on my cellphone, which can get complicated and time consuming. But I will try to update more quickly in the future. And again, thanks for reading.**

After treating her nosebleed, Madam Pomfrey allowed Avery to walk herself back to her dormitory, but not before Avery made a mental note about the tonic Pomfrey had used to treat her so that she could incorporate it into the antidote portion of their nosebleed nougat.  
Avery had hoped she might bump into Cedric making his rounds on her way back, but to her dismay the only person she encountered was Filch, who insisted upon seeing a note from the Hospital Wing verifying her story.

"I've seen you with those Weasleys," he commented, as he reluctantly handed back her note from Madam Pomfrey, clearly crestfallen he couldn't dole out a detention.  
"I talk to them occasionally, yes," she said slowly, squinting at him, pretending she didn't know where the conversation was leading.  
"Those twins are trouble, and that's makes anyone who associates with them trouble in my book" he said viciously. He was quite a sight in the dimly lit corridor, one finger pointing at her threateningly, the other hand holding an oil lamp, which cast a light that exaggerated every crease and crinkle of his aged face, not to mention the scraggly cat winding it's way around his ankles, occasionally meowing it's agreement.  
"That must make you a lot of friends" Avery muttered while she looked down at Mrs. Norris.  
"What? What was that?" Filch snarled.  
"I-I like your friend," Avery sputtered, pointing to his cat. She was a terrible liar, but all Filch did was sneer and head down the passage past her, the cat scurrying along after him.  
She crawled into her bed shortly after and fell into a deep sleep. She slept so deeply, in fact, she didn't hear her alarm a few hours later and awoke with a start only ten minutes before the start of History of Magic.  
"Bollocks!" She cried, throwing off her covers and rushing to her dresser, pulling on her uniform, cursing underneath her breath the entire time. As she pulled on her shoes she changed her hair to jet black, made herself six inches shorter, and willed her skin to be three shades lighter than normal. Grabbing her bag, she raced out of her dorm, through the common room, and up the stairs towards her class.  
She noticed a few people snickering in the halls as she ran passed, and she was grateful she thought to disguise herself so when they made fun of her later to their friends, they wouldn't know it was actually Avery Stone that was running to class like it meant her life.  
By the time she reached Professor Binn's classroom she was out of breath, flushed, and tired, but only two minutes late. She thought for a moment and changed herself back to her normal height, complexion, and features, except for her hair, which she made elbow length, wavy, and sandy colored before stepping inside. Once she did, Professor Bin's became quiet and gave her a dark look, as she had interrupted his monologue on Grindelwald. Mouthing an apology, so searched the room for an open seat, and the only one available was next to a familiar Hufflepuff with dark hair and a smattering of freckles. She had been avoiding sitting with Marilyn in classes since they had their disagreement in the Great Hall, but it was apparent it would be a bad time to squabble over seating as Binns was eying her impatiently, so she took the aisle seat next to Marilyn, careful to avoid her eye.

"As I was saying, the defeat of Grindelwald took place in-"

Marilyn slid a piece of parchment down the desk until it rested in front of Avery and then went back to taking notes. Avery took a quick glance down and saw Marilyn had written "still mad at me?" Avery's initial thought was that the answer should be quite obvious from the way she refused to look at Marilyn and was hanging off her seat and into the aisle, distancing herself as far as possible from the girl who had been her best friend since their first year. However, the more she thought about it the less angry she felt. More than anything she was bruised over the fact that Marilyn couldn't see why what she said had been hurtful and hadn't properly apologized.  
Pulling some parchment, a quill, and ink out of her bag, Avery began to take notes on the lecture, but not before scribbling a hasty "talk after" on Marilyn's note and shoving it back towards her. When the professor dismissed them, the two rose out of their chairs with their classmates, but instead of rushing out with them, the two hung back and waited for the room to become a little clearer before speaking.  
"I'm not mad, really. You said something that may have been well intended, but it came out as very insensitive and then you refused to acknowledge why it upset me and then didn't give me a proper apology, so I'm just a bit hurt I suppose," Avery explained, hitching her bag higher up on to her shoulder, trying to appear nonchalant. Marilyn nodded along as Avery spoke.  
"Well I am very sorry," she replied simply. Avery wasn't sure if she was unsatisfied with the apology because she was being bitter and irrational or if it was because it seemed a bit short and insincere. Chewing her lip for moment, she decided to give Marilyn the benefit of the doubt and chalk it up to bitterness.  
"Thank you. I'm sorry for being so upset over it," Avery replied, although she wasn't quite sure that she really was.  
"So we can walk to classes together and talk again?" Marilyn asked, and Avery nodded, willing herself to treat Marilyn no different than she would have been their fight had began, which got easier as the day wore on and lessons distracted them from any lingering tension. And if lessons weren't enough, in Charms class Seamus Finnegan caught his own robes on fire, which they thoroughly enjoyed laughing about together once he was extinguished. In fact, it wasn't until dinner time and she had sat down with Marilyn at the Hufflepuff table that Avery remembered what it felt like to have tension between them, and it all started with an innocent, "want to study together after dinner?"

Avery, without thinking, had hastily responded, "I can't, I have plans."

"Oh, what are you going to do?" Marilyn asked, helping herself to a roll from the basket in front of them. Avery quickly realized she couldn't very well tell Marilyn that she was helping the twins invent and manufacture a line of candies that helped students miss classes since she approved of neither the twins nor her pretending to be classmates for money, at least not without causing another rift between them.

"I'm tutoring someone," Avery blurted out and hurriedly taking the biggest bite she could out her chicken leg, chewing slowly, stalling for time to answer the question she knew would come next.

"Who?"

Avery pointed to her mouth, indicating she would answer after she was finished chewing. While she did, she scanned the Great Hall quickly, looking for a scapegoat. The chicken in her mouth was quickly becoming mush as she gnawed, eyes finally falling on Neville Longbottom, who she knew was notoriously bad at potions. Swallowing, she told Marilyn she would be helping the Gryffindor with his essay on girding potion in the library.

"Oh, well that's certainly nice of you. How did that happen?" Marilyn asked interestedly, buttering her bread.

"Well, I've been spending a lot of time studying, um, in the library lately, and he approached me and we started talking and I told him I am pretty good round a cauldron and so I've been tutoring him for a bit," Avery said, hoping her lie sounded a lot smoother than it felt. Marilyn frowned.

"And you're just doing this out of the goodness of your heart, or is he paying you?"

"No, actually he's been helping me with Herbology. You know, so I become a little less dependent on the plant life," Avery said, nodding.

"Oh. Well, that's good. Friends helping friends," Marilyn said, nodding also and turning back towards her plate. "Unless you're _more_ than friends or something," she added, finally biting into her roll. Avery turned to look at the Gryiffindor table, where Neville was listening in on Dean and Seamus' conversation, eyes blank, and mouth partially open.

"Definitely not," Avery said, rolling her eyes and going back to her meal.

After dinner, Marilyn and Avery bade each other goodnight, Avery throwing in another quick lie about meeting Neville at the library, before taking off up the staircase and to the Room of Requirement, where the twins were already waiting.

"Noticed you having dinner with Marilyn. Friends again?" Fred asked by way of greeting. He was hunched over a potions book, no doubt looking for new ideas on how to make the nosebleed nougat work. George was searching the shelves and pulling down more books, his arms piled high with them.

"She apologized this morning, but that doesn't matter because I know the solution to our problem," Avery said in a singsong voice, pulling the revised recipe for nosebleed nougat out of her bag and holding it under Fred's nose. He grabbed it from her and read it quickly. George had also dropped his books, ran to the table, and began reading over Fred's shoulder.

"What makes you so sure this will work?" Fred asked, turning to face her.

"After I left last night I broke into a nosebleed just outside the common room. It was just a delayed reaction, so if we add some Dragonfly thorax, that should speed up the reactions. I also wrote down the name of the tonic Madam Pomfrey gave me to stop mine. We could easily incorporate it into the antidote side of the candy," Avery said proudly.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get started!" George exclaimed, grabbing a cauldron from one of the supply cabinets. As each of them worked on a variation of the nougat, each containing different amounts of dragonfly thorax to determine what was most effective, Avery told them all about her nosebleed from the night before.

"It just came out of nowhere. I had no idea. All the sudden, Cedric's eyes just went wide like I'd told him I had leg hair as long as Merlin's beard or something-"

"Wait, Cedric? Diggory?" George asked, looking up from his potion. "You didn't mention you were with him."

"I bumped into him outside the common room. He took me to the hospital wing."

"Can't understand why all the girls fancy him. He's a bit of a git, actually," Fred chimed in just as he was adding his dragonfly thorax.

"What makes you say that?" Avery asked, trying not to feel ruffled. She told herself the reason Fred's assessment of Cedric hurt was because your house is your family while you're at Hogwarts and she didn't like anyone calling any of her housemates a git, although it easily could have been because she was one of the silly girls who fancied him.

"Well he's just a bit proud, isn't he? He knows the girls think he's handsome and he walks about like he owns the place. Reminds me a bit of Percy, really. Strutting around like he's above everyone."

"That's not true. Cedric is very humble. I mean, I've been in the same house with him for three years and I've never once seen him 'strut'," Avery replied as she stirred, trying to keep her voice even and seem disinterested. Neither Fred nor George replied, but shared a knowing look, before turning back to their potions, stirring and staring down into their cauldrons.

"What?" Avery asked, her brows pinching together as she concentrated on dicing her dittany, which was the next ingredient the nougat required.

"You've got it for Diggory," they said in unison, also chopping their dittany.

"You know I hate it when you do that," Avery said.

"You mean when we speak in sync, or when we accurately guess who you fancy?" George said, chuckling with his twin.

"Both," Avery muttered, before adding the dittany to her concoction. While stirring, Fred had rested his hand a little too close to the flame and singed it. After Avery treated it with some of the reserves in the medicine cabinet, the subject changed, and an hour later they had each finished their variation of the nosebleed nougat. Again, they tasted the treats in turn while the other two studied the reactions. Avery's variation caused her nose to spew blood only seconds after she bit into it, while conversely George's took around five minutes to take effect. Fred's however took around thirty seconds, and the three agreed it was the perfect amount of time. They also tried the antidote portion of the candy which contained some of the same tonic Madam Pomfrey had used (an entire bottle of which Avery happened to find in the medicine cabinet,) in different amounts and found that Fred's also proved to be the most effective, stopping the nosebleed within five seconds of ingestion.

"This is fantastic!" George exclaimed, posting the finalized recipe for their first candy on the bulletin board near the bookcase. The three of the them stood there together for a few moments, smiling on their achievement. "One down, and who knows how many more to go," Fred added, elbowing George playfully.

They left the Room of Requirement in great spirits that night, quietly discussing whether or not they should go to the kitchens to see if they could scrounge up some celebratory butterbeer. Checking the marauders map and finding no one in their immediate path, they decided they would, especially since Avery had to find her way back to her common room in the basement anyway.

They found the way clear until they reached the fourth floor landing, where George threw an arm out in from of Avery to keep her from proceeding down the third floor.

"Looks like Filch nabbed Cho Chang, he whispered, gabbing the back of Avery's robes and pulling her back away from the staircase and half behind a suit of armor, where Fred joined them, checking his watch.

"What could she be doing out this late? It's half-past one."

The sound of distant voices were echoing their way up the stairs. She could hear Filch's gravelly drawl and Cho's high voice, seeming to be pleading, but for what Avery couldn't distinguish.

"They're moving this way," George whispered before muttering a quick "mischief managed," pulling Avery further behind the suit of armor. Fred followed so that they were all pressed together, hidden in the shadows. Avery listened closely as Filch and Cho made their way up the stairs, trying not to breathe, paranoid Filch or his cat would notice them. Through the bend in the suit of armor's arm, Avery could see Filch and Cho coming up the staircase, Filch holding his lantern out in front of him, his other hand firmly clasping the back of Cho's robes, practically dragging her forward, Mrs. Norris hot on his heels. Cho looked a mess; her hair was untidy and she was quite wan, eyes beginning to water.

"Please Mr. Filch! I just need to find my notes! My essay is due in the morning, and I won't be able to complete it without them. If you could just let me into the library for one-"

"Rubbish! Headed for the Restricted section, no doubt. Rotten children, absolutely no respect-"

" _Mr. Filch, please!"_

They continued up the stairs, bickering back and forth, Cho's voice becoming more like a whimper with each new argument, and Filch becoming shriller and shriller. When they were out of sight, George opened the map again, swore he was up to no good, and checked to see where Filch and Cho had gone.

"Looks like he's taking her back to Ravenclaw tower," George said, scanning the map, "I think we're clear to head for the kitchens."

"Alright," Avery began, as they untangled themselves from behind the armor, "but can we make a stop at the Library first?"

"What? You want to get her notes for her?"

"Precisely. Did you see how distraught she was? If it were me I would want someone to help if they were able," Avery said, but she could tell the twins were reluctant. They shared a look with one another and rolled their eyes, as if silently communicating that she were a dunderhead for wanting to help. She didn't know Cho very well at all. She had only talked to her maybe twice, in fact, but she had always seemed very nice, and judging by how upset she was, it must be an important essay that was do.

"Well I'll just go along without you then," Avery said, turning on her heel and marching down the stairs as quietly as she could. After a brief pause, she could hear the twins' footfalls behind her. She half expected them to continue down to the kitchens without her, but to her surprise, when she veered off onto the third floor, they were right behind her. Silently, with George monitoring the map, they pushed the door open and tip-toed their way in. Luckily Cho had left her notes on top of a table not too far from the entrance and Fred spotted them within a minute or two of being there. He quickly snatched them and passed them off to Avery.

"There. We're even now," he whispered gruffly. Avery gave him a puzzled look, unsure of what debt they had to settle, but she didn't bother to question him in that moment. George was standing near the door, ushering them out, mouthing 'Percy.' They dodged out of the room, down the corridor, and down the stairs as quickly and quietly as they could, narrowly avoiding Percy in the corridor, who was making his rounds as prefect. Flushed, they reached the ground floor, where Avery thanked them for helping her retrieve the notes.

"I appreciate it, and I'm sure Cho will, too. I'm going to owl them to her right now."

"Come and have a butterbeer first," George began.

"That was the whole reason we were coming down here anyway, remember?" Fred added, looking a little sullen. Weighing the options in her mind, she decided Cho would be happy to have them a little later than not at all, and stopped by the kitchen for a quick drink with the twins. She meant to ask Fred what he meant by what he said in the Library, but she became distracted by all the elves shoving bottles at her and even moreso when the twins began smiling and laughing loudly, cheering their success. And she had never seen the twins happier than when they toasted to Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes and their first completed product; nosebleed nougat.

The following morning, Avery poured herself a very large cup of coffee to drink while she quickly wrote out the paper on boggarts Professor Lupin had asked for, which she had been putting off. Since she had been helping the twins, she wasn't getting much sleep, or doing much homework for that matter. She vowed that she would set aside more time for herself from now on and certainly no more two a.m. butterbeers with the twins. Marilyn, on the other hand, seemed perfectly rested and was quietly reading the paper beside her when Cho Chang came to the table, cleared her throat, causing Avery to look up, bleary eyed, at her.

"I got your owl," she said, fidgeting. Then, finally seeming to decide something, she sat down across from Avery. "I'm very pleased and grateful, mind you," she whispered across the platter of eggs between them, "but... _how?_ "

Suddenly, Marilyn didn't seem so interested in _The Prophet_ and their latest assessment of where Sirus Black might be. She had folded her and paper and was listening to their conversation with her brow furrowing, clearly curious about what Cho could be so confused about. Avery was almost too tired to care whether or not Marilyn found out exactly what had happened the night before and who she was with, so she said the vaguest thing she could think of and hoped for the best.

"I noticed them on a table in the library. Thought you might need them," she said, finishing her sentence with a yawn and huge gulp of coffee. Cho gave her a puzzled look, but luckily before she could speak, something else more interesting seemed to catch Marilyn's eye, because she was cramming her paper into her bag and jumping out of her seat, hurriedly telling Avery she would see her in class before practically running out of the Great hall. Avery stared after her, the wheels turning so slowly in her mind she didn't even hear Cho talking to her again.

"Huh? What was that?" Avery asked sleepily, turning back to the Ravenclaw before dipping her quill in her ink and blotting a period at the end of her conclusion.

"I said the library is closed by nine-thirty. Why did you wait till two a.m. to send them if you found them while you were in library?"

"Well I didn't say I was in the library during open hours," Avery chuckled. She rubbed her eyes and told Cho what had happened; she was out late wandering the castle with some friends (whose names she conveniently left out) when she overheard her and Filch's encounter, so she snuck into the Library to find her notes. When she was finished, Cho's mouth was slightly open, her hand to her temple.

"I can't believe you did that. Thank you so much. I-I have no idea what to say. I was able to finish my essay thanks to you. I really owe you." Avery waved off her acknowledgment.

"Don't worry about it. I'm glad we could help," she rolled up her essay and tucked it into her bag.

"I also have a favor to ask..." Cho went on, twisting a lock of her now neatly-combed hair around her finger.

"Um, I'm not sure if anyone's ever told you this, Cho, but usually you don't repay someone who just did you a tremendous favor by asking them for another one," Avery laughed, downing the rest of her coffee and rubbing her eyes again.

"I know. It's just that I have detention with Snape tonight, and I'm already very behind in my schoolwork, which, I'm sure you could guess by the way I tried to sneak into the library last night, and how I was carrying on with Filch... And, well, Dennis told me what you do..."

Avery snapped to attention and looked carefully at Cho.

"I swear, I won't tell a soul," She said, holding up her hands, as if to say, "don't shoot."

"And so you want me to cover your detention this evening?"

"Yes. Please. I'm going mad with all this work, and with quidditch, and I just need the night free to catch up. I promise your secret is safe with me."

Avery sighed deeply and checked her watch. She had another thirty minutes before her first lesson began, so she pulled out some fresh parchment and dipped her quill in the ink again.

"My fee is seven galleons, and I'll need some of your robes, which I'll return later. Stay still, I need to write down your features." Cho said nothing in response and stayed still while Avery stared at her and jotted down characteristics, noticing more and more the longer she stared the unevenness of her complexion.

That evening, after she had successfully completed Cho's detention, she climbed the stairs out of the dungeon, still disguised as Cho, flexing her arm. She had been made to scrub all the tables, chairs, and floors of Snape's classroom, without magic of course. It had taken quite a while to scrape the frog spawn from the floor, so it was nearly eleven o'clock by the time she reached the entrance hall. She was hoping the hall would be empty so she could hurry her way to her dormitory and fall asleep, still exhausted from the night before. However, upon reaching the hall, she saw Cedric Diggory starting up the stairs and stopping when she emerged from the corridor.

"Cho? What are you doing out?" he asked. Luckily, Avery was a little more adapt at imitating female voices, so she felt comfortable using words sparingly.

"Detention," she replied simply, solemnly, digging her note out of her book bag and holding it out to Cedric, who took it in his hands and looked it over, before looking back at her.

"It's not like you to be out wandering at night," he commented, handing the note back. Avery's instinct was to make some sort of quip and hopefully make him laugh, but she just shrugged in response; she may have been confident in imitating Cho's voice, but she had no idea how good of friends she and Cedric were and so she didn't want to comment too much when it wasn't absolutely necessary.

"Come on, I'll walk you back to your tower," Cedric offered, holding out his arm for her to lead the way. In no mood to climb all the way to the tower, only to have to come back down, she declined.

"T-That's alright. It's a long way and aren't you supposed to stay down here outside of emergencies?" she replied.

"Well, yes, actually. I just wanted to walk with you and talk to you," he explained, his hands in his pockets now, rocking back and forth on the balls of his feet.

"Oh?" Avery asked, not having to feign her interest. What business could Cedric and Cho have? She had never seen them together, so she assumed they weren't very close.

"Yes, well, I was wondering if you wanted to go to Hogsmede together. I know it's not for another few weekends, but I wanted to ask you early. You know, before someone else did," he said with a smile, the one Avery normally couldn't help but imitate. But this time she had no desire to smile for a few reasons. The first being, of course, she had hoped he might ask _her_ to visit Hogsmede with him. She knew it hadn't been a likely thing to happen, but she had hoped all the same and it was a bit deflating to discover that she had not only imagined their moment before he nosebleed, but that he was also romantically interested in someone other than her (she couldn't deny selfishly imagining that he either had eyes for her or no one at all). The second was she did not know Cho very well and was completely unequipped to answer this question.

She fidgeted a bit with her bag, and then her hair, remembering that Cho had done the same thing this morning. She was taking too long, and Cedric was looking at her too hopefully. She needed to give him an answer, and quickly. She looked everywhere but at Cedric and bit her lip before blurting out yes, and rushing up the stairs before Cedric could either respond or catch up.


	7. Discussions and Dementors

" _Sweet Merlin's beard, what have I done,_ " Avery moaned internally as she hurriedly bounded up the stairs, heading no where in particular other than as far away from Cedric as her frantic feet would carry her. She had agreed, while impersonating Cho Chang, to go to Hogsmede with Cedric Diggory.

"I'm an idiot. I. Am. An. IDIOT. An absolute dolt," she thought.

She wasn't sure what she should do. She couldn't very well transform back into herself and get back to the Hufflepuff dormitories while Cedric would be lurking on the first few floors. She was certain she would get caught, and this time she didn't have a teachers note bearing her name, allowing to avoid a detention. It wasn't until she was on the fifth floor that the Room of Requirement occurred to her as a place of refuge.

Taking the steps two at a time, Avery climbed the next two floors and hurried down the corridor to the stretch of wall that had become all too familiar to her. She paced back and forth three times in front of it, silently pleading for a place to rest as well as a means to alert Cho of the night's goings-on. It was only a moment before a door appeared and Avery hastily wrenched in open, stepped in, and closed the door behind her.

Never failing to impress, the Room of Requirement had transformed into a large bedroom. A bed the size of her entire dormitory sat in one corner with a roaring fire opposite. On the bed was a pair of pajamas laid out for her, and to her surprise and delight there was a window on the far wall, on the ledge of which an owl sat, hooting happily. Avery noticed parchment, a quill, and ink was also waiting for her on her bedside table, so she scurried over to it to write Cho a note of explanation.

After she gave the letter to owl and it soared out the window towards Ravenclaw tower, Avery remembered she still wasn't herself. Before changing clothes, she took a moment to transfigure herself back to normal, all the while rationalizing to herself that the encounter with Cedric really wasn't so bad. If Cho liked Cedric, great. She was going to have a date with him thanks to Avery. If she didn't like him (which was highly unlikely, Avery thought bitterly,) she could pretend she thought he just meant as friends, or she could just stick it out for one date and tell him afterward she didn't want to continue dating him. Simple as that. However that was really only half the reason the whole thing made Avery's stomach turn.

The following morning, Avery awoke to a freshly laundered set of Hufflepuff robes in just her size. Appreciating this room more and more by the minute, she pulled them on and made her way down to the entrance hall, anxious to speak to Cho and see how she had received her news. When she arrived, she scanned the Ravenclaw table but saw no sign of Cho, so she walked to her house's table and helped herself to some coffee and toast, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.

"There you are! Where have you been all night?" Marilyn's voice came from behind her. Avery looked over her shoulder to see an incredulous look etched in Marilyn's sharp features, hands on her hips and all.

"What do you mean?" Avery stalled, turning back to her toast and taking a mouthful; she was especially grateful that these encounters with Marilyn kept taking place in the presence of food so she could busy herself while preparing an adequate lie.

"What do you mean what do I mean? You weren't in our dormitory all night!" Marilyn said, throwing herself into the chair beside Avery and fixing her with a stare. Avery swallowed.

"How do you know that?" Avery said, taking another humungous bite, a thought flitting through her had that she should carry bits of food with her at all times so she could easily buy lying time wherever she went.

"I was up until nearly one and you weren't there when I feel asleep. You weren't there when Susan snoring like the Hogwarts express woke me at four a.m., and you weren't there when I woke up at six either. I was worried!"

"I was in the hospital wing. Another nosebleed. Nothing serious. I didn't think you would notice so I didn't bother to owl you," Avery said, thinking that at least the last part was true.

"Another nosebleed? And she didn't just give you a tonic and send you back to your room like last time?" Marilyn inquired, her time accusatory. It was a follow up question she hadn't expected and that Avery hadn't taken a bite to create time to deflect. Her face fell as she tried to stammer out another excuse.

"Come off it! Tell me the truth. Your tutoring session with Longbottom run long? What exactly are you tutoring him in again?" She added, raising an eyebrow suggestively. Avery shushed her, worried one of their housemates might overhear and rumor would get around that she and Neville actually were an item. However, her avid shushing only seemed to confirm Marilyn's theory, whose hands were now covering her mouth, eyes wide.

"Merlin! It's true, isn't it? You and Longbottom!" She exclaimed.

"Shut up!" Avery hissed, although Marilyn was giggling hard and probably didn't here. Avery's eyes darted around to the others nearest them, and most of which were watching her and Marilyn, intrigued.

"Please shut up, you're embarrassing me," Avery said, focusing hard to keep her skin closer to ivory than magenta.

"I'm sorry," Marilyn breathed, "but you've got to tell me what happened. You two get holed up in a broom closet somewhere or what?"

"Avery," a soft voice came from behind them, and Avery, thankful for the distraction, turned around. Her gratitude was short lived, however. It was Cho, and Avery's stomach dropped.

"I got your owl," she whispered excitedly. "Obviously I'm very sad I wasn't present to tell him myself, but I'm so excited to go to Hogsmede with Cedric. I just wanted to thank you again and collect my robes."

It was impossible for Avery to keep from turning red as Marilyn's eyes narrowed at her. She pulled the Ravenclaw robes out of her bag and handed them to Cho, muttering a "don't mention it," meaning it a lot more literally than she was sure Cho took it. With a final few words of gratitude, Cho practically skipped back to her house table to sit with her friend Marrietta.

"Well that was enlightening," Marilyn scoffed, voice dripping with disdain as she reached across Avery for a muffin. "Personally I wish you actually were snogging Neville in a closet all night instead of what you were actually doing."

"I'm sorry I lied to you," Avery whispered. "I just knew you wouldn't approve and... Well obviously that doesn't make it right to lie... But I'm just tired of you being angry with me for something that I do that doesn't hurt anyone. Can't you just be happy that I am using my time on something productive?"

"What do you need the money for? You didn't make the team so it can't be for a broom any more. And there are more productive and more honest things you could be doing with your time," Marilyn countered, but it seemed she didn't care to wait for an answer to her question. She was pushing herself into a standing position and shouldering her bag.

"I really am sorry for lying, please don't run off-"

"My running off is actually unrelated to you. I have somewhere to be. If you want to traipse around being dishonest then that's your call. Just remember these things have a way of coming back to haunt you." And then she was off before Avery could get in another word. Before she could wonder too much about where her friend might be off to at six thirty in the morning, Fred and George bounded up to the table like a pair of happy golden retrievers.

"Good morning, love!" They chorused, taking up seats on either side of her and helping themselves to breakfast as if at their own table.

"How did your night go?"

"Earn plenty of gold?"

"Don't talk so loud. Out of context those questions make me look bad," Avery said, gulping her drink.

"Well judging by your cloudy disposition I'd say your evening wasn't too peachy," Fred said, surveying her, "what's the matter?" With a sigh, Avery quickly explained the run in with Cedric and having been caught in her lie by Marilyn.

"I wouldn't sweat it," George replied coolly. "That Marilyn doesn't seem like much of a friend anyway if you ask me-"

"There is definitely something a bit off about her, that's for sure," Fred finished, stirring his porridge.

"What are you talking about? She's been my best friend since first year. She's a good friend."

"If you say so, Avery," Fred replied, although he didn't seem to be paying attention to her argument. Both he and his twin were half facing their house table, grinning from ear to ear.

"What are you two so happy about?" Avery said, craning her neck to try to see what it was they looked so jovial about.

"We put a calming draught in Wood's pumpkin juice," George explained, not taking his eyes of their quidditch captain, who Avery was now noticing was uncharacteristically serene for it being only a few days before the first quidditch match of the season.

"Seems to be working quite well," Avery commented, sipping her coffee, which was quickly becoming cold.

"Yeah, let's just hope it lasts. I can't take him hounding me in the corridors—"

"In the common room-"

"In the lavatories, for Merlin's sake."

Unfortunately for the twins, the calming draught was either not potent enough, or just no match for Wood's sheer determination to have a winning season, because after her third class of the day, she saw Wood chasing the twins out of Transfiguration class, shouting about bludgers, and not long after, the twins warned her they would be having extra quidditch practice and wouldn't be able to meet that evening.

"Can't say I'm surprised. But it's quite alright, I could use a free night to catch up on coursework as it is," Avery told them, giving them sympathetic looks. They both looked more irritated than she had ever seen them, and she wondered fleetingly if Cedric was giving his team the same amount of guff, and then dismissing the thought, quite certain that although Cedric wanted to win, he wouldn't sacrifice his and his team's sanity to do so.

She retreated to the common room and chose a familiar table and armchair and began studying, occasionally asking the plants for advice on her Herbology paper, but otherwise staying quiet. About halfway through her paper on shrivelfigs, Marilyn crawled in through the common room entrance. Avery waved in greeting, and Marilyn, spotting her, came and took a set at her table, drawing her homework out of her bag also.

"I really am sorry, you know," Avery said while Marilyn avoided eye contact. Despite the fact that Avery hated lying, she did it quite often for the sake of her business, but she had always been very open with Marilyn, and she was tired of fighting.

"I know," she replied, her eyes darting up from her paper to meet Avery's gaze. They nodded at each other, seeming to come to a wordless agreement that it wasn't worth being upset over anymore, and Avery felt the weight of it fall off her shoulders. They each dipped their quill in their ink bottles and set to writing.

"So where were you hurrying off to this morning?" Marilyn paused to look up at Avery, who sat waiting for an answer to her question.

"Perhaps we should just avoid discussing each others hobbies," she finally sighed, before turning back to her paper. More curious than ever, Avery started to protest, but just then the Hufflepuff quidditch team began filing in, soaked to the bone by the pouring rain, but all looking jovial regardless. Each of them headed to their respective dormitories, Anne waving a hello as she passed. Cedric, however, made his way over to their table, pushing his wet hair back out of his eyes, mud splashed up the legs of his pants and across his cheek.

"Hello, Avery, Marilyn," he said, nodding to each of them in turn, smiling brightly.

"Alright there, Ced? Good practice, I take it?" Marilyn asked, looking up at him.

"I thought the weather would be a challenge, but we flew better than ever tonight. In fact we finished a bit early; Wood from Gryffindor requested the field, so they're having an extra practice right now," Cedric explained, although Avery only half heard. She was a bit distracted by the way his wet jersey was clinging to his muscular arm.

"I wanted to thank you again for lending Anne your broom, Avery. She probably would've been blow away by now on her old one. When we win the match this Saturday, I'll have to buy you a butterbeer," Cedric said, Avery finally snapping back into it and looking back, forgetting not to let herself flush.

"Oh, right! Sure," she stammered before clearing her throat and nervously running her hand through her hair.

"Great. Well I'll see you both at the match, then? I really think we've got a great season ahead of us."

"We'll be there," Marilyn replied, and mercifully Cedric waved goodbye and headed to his room. Avery watched him go, remembering that he would be taking Cho to Hogsmede in only a few weeks, stomach sinking.

"I can't believe you got Cho a date with him when you are clearly smitten," Marilyn scoffed, turning back to her essay.

"Well it's not like I had much of a choice. He asked her, not me, and I'm not going to purposefully sabotage what could be a meaningful relationship just because I like his biceps," Avery grumbled.

"If you say so," Marilyn replied, jotting down the most popular uses of shrivelfig.

"Well what would you have done?" Avery asked, scowling.

"I would've gotten what I wanted; you have to remember to take care of yourself sometimes," Marilyn replied, fixing Avery with a stare, who went back to her paper and avoided responding, confident that she had done the right thing regardless of what Marilyn said.

Although Avery and the twins weren't able to work on Weasley Wizarding Wheezes together that week with all the additional practices Wood was calling for, they did spend a fair amount of their free time together. Although they felt any suspicion about Snape's missing potion ingredients had long since dissolved, they still avoided being seen together where possible, Avery often altering her appearance before meeting them in corridors or sitting with them in the Great Hall. They discussed their business, but they also got to know each other a bit more personally. Avery asked them questions about their family and reveled in hearing stories about their siblings, especially Charlie's studies in Romania and Bill being a cruse breaker. In turn, Avery told them about living in London with her parents, and a bit more about being a metamorphmagus.

"Metamorphmagi are born, not made," she explained when the twins asked what she had done to become one. "My mom always tells this story about how when I was born there was this terrible mix-up at St. Mungos. I was born with blonde hair but I guess I changed it to black when the nurses weren't looking and it caused a lot of confusion."

"When did you decide to start impersonating people for galleons?" Fred prodded curiously. They were in the library, partly because they all had homework to do, but mostly because even if Wood found them he wouldn't be able to stay; Madam Prince would quickly have him removed for shouting quidditch instructions and disturbing the peace and quiet.

"First year, round Easter holiday. Another first year was supposed to do a detention that he didn't really deserve with Snape, and the poor boy was terrified. I think Longbottom is the only person I've ever seen more intimidated by Snape than Andy. He's a Hufflepuff too. Anyway, he was due in the dungeons in fifteen minutes when I found him shaking in an armchair in the common room, and I just couldn't let him do it, so I told him to give me a pair of his robes and I went to detention for him. I did it here and there for a few others two, and then I realized I could charge people so I could have my own income. So I did."

"That's brilliant," George said, his potions essay unrolled in front of him.

"It's nothing compared to the things you've come up with. Your own joke shop is incredibly ambitious."

"Well it certainly sounds more appealing then killing ourselves for O.W.L.S and N.E.W.T.S so we can end up stuck in an office somewhere," Fred smiled, his potions essay also laying before him, untouched.

"Speaking of joke shops, though, how'd you like to come with us to Hogsmede? We'll be needing to go to Zonko's and pick up a few things. Lee'll be joining us," George asked, and Avery happily agreed. While she had always appreciated Marilyn, she was really enjoying getting to the know the twins better, and despite having only been around them a few weeks, she inexplicably felt more comfortable with them than she ever had with Marilyn.

That Saturday was the worst weather Avery had ever seen at Hogwarts. Having promised to meet Marilyn in the stands, Avery was walking down to the pitch with the twins, the winds absolutely howling, thunder rolling overhead. They had only been outside the castle for few minutes, and all three of them were already soaked. She couldn't imagine how she was even going to see the goings-on of the match in this weather when she could hardly see which direction the pitch was in.

"Well, some luck to you," Avery shouted over the wind, hair whipping her face under her umbrella.

"I believe the phrase is 'good luck'," George retorted, his cheeks pink from the cold, clashing terribly with his hair.

"But I don't want you to win," Avery explained. The twins looked like they wanted to make a retort, but rather than exhaust themselves by shouting it over the wind, they shook their heads and clapped her on each shoulder before retreating into the locker rooms to change.

Avery found her way up into the stands and, after lot of searching, found Marilyn hunkered down under a yellow umbrella, her scarf obscuring half her face.

"This is mad," she yelled through the yellow and black chunky scarf, "having the game in this weather. I'm miserably cold." Avery couldn't argue. It seemed a bit dangerous to be flying in the weather, but then she reminded herself Hogwarts was the school where there were giant three headed dogs hidden in corridors and He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named had been making repeat appearances; clearly this educational institution wasn't going to be named the safest of it's kind any time soon.

After what seemed like an awfully long period of the wind howling in her ears, she could make out the two teams filing out onto the field, staggering sideways in the wind. She felt a pang of fear for Cedric; how was he going to see the snitch in this? After the team captains shook hands, both teams mounted their brooms, and they were off.

Cedric was right, the Hufflepuff team was flying very well for the weather they were in, but unfortunately not well enough. Anne was far too small and easily blown off course. She was doing well under the circumstances, but before long a time-out was called by the Gryffindor team, and they were fifty points up. Unless Cedric caught the snitch quickly, they were likely heading for a loss.

"This game is going to last all night," Marilyn moaned when the teams took back to the sky. Then, suddenly, her eyes seemed to flash with a dark humor. Avery followed her gaze, only to see that Marilyn was looking directly at Neville Longbottom, who was watching the match open-mouthed.

"HEY NEVILLE," she shouted over the wind, Avery elbowing her in the ribs, knowing exactly what Marilyn was going to do and trying to shut her up. Neville looked over his shoulder at them, looking puzzled.

"HOW ARE YOU ENJOYING TUTORING?" Marilyn sneered. At first Neville looked even more confused, and mouthed 'what,' but his face then quickly fell, the color draining from it. At first, Avery was mortified, but then she realized the whole crowd, which had been avidly cheering only a few moments ago had gone eerily silent. Even the wind was forgetting to roar in Avery's ears. Then, a wave of cold, colder than the rain swept over her, fogging her senses. She looked away from Neville to see hundreds of dementors crowding the pitch. Dumbledore had warned the students of their presence at school this year, but something told her that their sudden appearance at the match wasn't exactly sanctioned.

Every horrible memory she had ever had flitted through her mind, from the most simple of things to the most complex; her first crush rejecting her and crying into her pillow the following night, not being selected for the team both years, the night she held her cousin's hand in the hospital and whispered goodbye, when her parents where inches from each other, screaming and spitting at one another while she watched, too terrified to move.

Suddenly, she heard screaming, and for a minute, she thought she was the one doing it, feeling as though she had lost all of her senses. But she quickly realized it was the people around her, whose eyes were following Harry Potter's body plunging down toward the pitch, towards the creatures with hidden faces and lifeless, scabbing hands.

After the match, most of the Hufflepuff house stayed gathered together in the common room around the fire. Anne hadn't bothered to change out of her soggy quidditch robes and was sniffling audibly. Avery and Marilyn sat not too far from her near a clump of other students in their year, including Jeffery and Dennis. Every looked solemn, especially Cedric; Hufflepuff had finally won a game of quidditch, and they couldn't even enjoy it properly. The effect of the dementors still hung over them, almost none of them touching the chocolate Professor Sprout had brought them. She knew it would make her feel better, but Avery just couldn't bring herself to eat. She had tried to find the twins after the game to see if their friend Harry was okay, but they had goner with him into the Hospital wing, and Madam Promfrey insisted it was far too crowded for her to go inside, too.

Slowly and wordlessly, most of the house started making their way to bed early that night. Resolving that she had best say something before Cedric made his way to bed too, she crossed over to him and sat next to him, cross legged on the floor near the hearth.

"Are you alright?" she asked, surveying him. He was also in his muddy robes still, looking frustrated and upset.

"It just doesn't feel right," he explained. "I offered a rematch, but they said we won. It doesn't feel like it." He shook his head solemnly before giving Avery a sad smile.

"That was very kind of you," she said, not sure what else she could say. She understood exactly what he meant. It certainly didn't feel like a victory. Not to any of them.

"Well, I suppose I owe you a butterbeer," Cedric mused, attempting a smile. But it wasn't the same one Avery normally had a hard time not mirroring. It didn't reach his eyes.

"Oh no, don't worry about that, Cedric," Avery stammered, trying to make him feel better, but feeling that she was failing in some way she couldn't put her finger on. He nodded solemnly again, before sighing and leaving the common room, leaving Avery feeling foolish and inadequate on the common room floor.


End file.
